Three most beautiful landscapes in Japan
The three most beautiful landscapes of Japan ( Japanese 日本 三 景 , Nihon sankei ) are coastal landscapes with gentle sea-land transitions, which have shaped Japanese painting and poetry .
It is a matter of:
- the numerous pine- covered islands of Matsushima ( 松 島 ) in Matsushima Bay near Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture ,
- the pine-covered spit of Amanohashidate ( 天 の 橋 立 ), the so-called sky bridge of Amanohashidate , in the prefecture of Kyoto and
- the holy island of Miyajima ( 宮 島 ) with the Shinto shrine of Itsukushima ( 厳 島 ) in Hiroshima Prefecture .
The pine islands of Matsushima
The Amanohashidate Sky Bridge
Amanohashidate in woodcut by Hiroshige 1856
Nihon sankei
The term Nihon sankei comes from the Confucian philosopher and polymath Hayashi Razan ( 林羅 山 ), who lived in the 17th century . The Japanese word sankei ( 三 景 ) is made up of the components san ( 三 ), the symbol for three and kei ( 景 ), the word for landscape, scenery or view.
The new three most beautiful landscapes in Japan
In 1915, in a national election organized by the publishing house Jitsugyō no Nihon-sha ( 実 業 之 日本社 ), three more landscapes were identified and adorned with the title "New three most beautiful landscapes of Japan":
- Ōnuma ( 大沼 ), a lake in the east of the Ōshima peninsula ( Hokkaidō ).
- Miho no Matsubara ( 三 保 の 松原 ), a pine forest on the Miho Peninsula ( Shizuoka Prefecture )
- Yabakei ( 耶馬 渓 ), landscape on the upper and middle reaches of the Yamakuni River ( 山 国 川 , Yamakunigawa) in Nakatsu ( Ōita Prefecture )
Ōnuma in Ōnuma Quasi-National Park
Miho no Matsubara
Yabakei
Other lists
Following the example of the three most beautiful landscapes of Japan, there are also the three famous gardens of Japan ( 三名 園 Sanmeien ), as well as many other such lists.