Matsushima is renowned for its sheltered bay dotted with more than 260 picturesque islands covered with pine trees. Artists, poets, pilgrims, and tourists have long traveled to the northern end of Miyagi Prefecture to be inspired by the area’s natural beauty and to visit the Buddhist temple complex Zuiganji. Remarkably, the temple and much of the surrounding landscape survived the earthquake and tsunami that struck the Pacific coast of Japan. Images of Matsushima from the Freer Gallery’s collection—a pair of seventeenth-century folding screens by Tawaraya Sōtatsu and woodblock prints by Kawase Hasui—record a national treasure that narrowly escaped total destruction.
Detail, Zaimoku Island, Matsushima; Kawase Hasui (1883–1957); From the series Collection of Scenic Views of Japan, Eastern Japan edition; Japan, May 1933; Woodblock print; ink and color on paper; Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Robert O. Muller Collection S2003.8.796