Kisakata Kujukushima

**Late April to early June.** The flooded paddies are the entire point — that is the few weeks when the islands are surrounded by water and the lagoon Basho described comes back. Any other month they are mounds in a field. **Start at Kanmanji.** The temple at the centre is where the marked circuit begins and it holds the Basho connection. Founded 853. **Read the haiku first.** Basho's line about Kisakata grieving is one of the best-known in Japanese literature and it is the reason the landscape is protected. Twenty minutes with Oku no Hosomichi transforms the visit. **The 1804 earthquake is the story.** Two metres of uplift in one night turned a celebrated seascape into farmland. There is a marker recording it. **Mt. Chokai is the backdrop.** Clear days put a snow-capped volcano behind the islands, which is what makes the flooded-paddy photographs.