Seek fine ryokan, Matsushima area

During our coming trip to Japan (early October) my wife will turn 40.

I'd like to book 2 nights in a fine ryokan in Matsushima area (Kinkazan is within the geographic range, too. And if someone suggests an onsen elsewhere in Miyagi I willl consider that, too.)

I don't mind if the feature is the view, the decor, the cuisine or other. And I don't mind paying. It's a special occasion.

I just want to it to be memorable.

(Yes, I know it's a bit early for fall colours.)

I've never been to Matsushima, so this is just the result of a websearch because I felt like doing it but if it were ME, and it were special, I'd go here:
http://www.kankou-miyagi.net/cgi-bin/ss_detail.cgi?ID=5130263&country=eng&ef=lst

There is a link to the ryokan's home page there as well, http://www.sakan-net.co.jp/shoan/top.html

Doesn't it just look beautiful? I want to go.

Beautiful indeed, spendthrift. You have done well.

I am curious; how did you search? When I googled Miyagi+ryokan in various permutations I just got big unattractive resorts or small shabby looking hotels.

I will wait for a few days to see what other suggestions come in, and then I'll go ahead and book.

Much appreciated.

I get into this stuff. I am always looking for a better ryokan...
I don't speak Japanese well, and can't write, but I can recognize common characters, and I have Japanese downloaded on my computer so I can do a search using kana or kanji. That makes a huge difference.
Another tool is this site: www.clipit.co.jp
it has links to hotels and ryokans. The Japanese side is very extensive (but by no means complete); there is an english side but it's limited. The way to do it is to learn the kanji for where you're going, and start pushing buttons. That's how I found the link I gave you. Watch the toolbar at the bottom of your screen, and it often has the 'romaji' for the kanji links. I found the English information by first getting the Japanese site, looking at the bottom of the screen for the romaji, then putting that in for the next search.
More than you wanted to know.

A good source for luxury hotels and ryokan is the following website (Japanese only):
http://www.ikyu.com/

For Matsushima they list the following hotels:

http://www.sakan-net.co.jp/shoan/top.html
from around 30,000 Yen/person

http://www.ichinobo.com/matsushima/
from around 17,000 Yen/person

http://www.new-komatsu.co.jp/
from around 15,000 Yen/person

It took me too long to report - life is too busy!

In the end, we had a driving/mishuku/onsen tour in Tohoku (Matsushima, Hanamaki, Hachimantaira and Hirosaki), followed by a hiking tour in Hokkaido (Shiretoko, Akan, Daisetsuzan and Onuma).

The actual birthday was spent at Marukoma Onsen, Lake Shikotsu.

It was lovely there, with a deluxe lakeside room, but more like a good 3-or-4 star hotel than the 5-star ryokan experience I was originally intending. Still, instead of two days of 5-star we had all the other landscapes, and the leaves were already turning up there.