There are two general strategies for the syntheses of unusual monosaccharides. One is the classic "heterocycle→heterocycle" approach; in such syntheses, chemists begin with a more readily available monosaccharide and then systematically manipulate it to the end target. A second, less explored approach is to commence with a linear precursor, build functional group complexity, and then effect a late-stage cyclization ("linear→cyclic"). The former approach generally has fewer total step counts; on balance, due to existing complexity, monosaccharides can be very challenging starting materials, whose modifications generally require lengthy protection-deprotection sequences. For this reason, we prefer the latter approach, because of the greater flexibility it affords and chose kasugamine derivative A as our first target (Scheme 1).