Matsushima is said to have the best scenery in Japan. People with an elegant turn of mind, past and present, have thought hard and employed skill [in writing poems] about the islands. In the sea area about three square li , various islands of unusual shape look as if wonderfully carved by a heavenly artist. Each with pine trees flourishing on it, the islands are beautiful and attractive beyond description:
Islands: shattered into thousands of pieces in the summer sea
Islands: shattered into thousands of pieces in the summer sea