In Matsushima, you can see many small islands and rocks covered with pine trees. Long time ago, people in the Kyoto palace reading poems describing beautiful views of Matsushima yearned to visit here.
The splendor of this scenery had had a great and long influence on Japanese literature and beauty standards. Having seen many Japanese style gardens, I feel there are three important beauty factors: water, rocks and pine trees. Sometimes white sand was substituted for water. Matsushima seems to have been a splendid model for garden designers. The left building seems to be positioned aiming at making this view more beautiful.
The architecture is quite excellent. Every carpenters did their best for this.
The sea and the sky keep pine islands together.