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SHONAN
Shonan - Shonan Beach is closest resort style beach to Tokyo and Yokohama. Shonan is also very close to Kamakura and the statue of the Great Buddha.
Shonan (湘南) is the name of a resort-oriented region along
the coast of Sagami Bay in central
Japan. Centered on
Enoshima, an island about 50 kilometers
southwest of Tokyo, the Shonan region stretches from
Oiso (大磯) in the west to Hayama (葉山) in the east, including
Kamakura (鎌倉) and Hiratsuka (平塚). Because of the
bay, the region benefits from a mild climate and long beaches covered with
dark volcanic sand.
In postwar times, the Shonan region gained prominence in Ishihara Shintaro's
prize-winning 1955 novel, Taiyō no Kisetsu (Season of the Sun). The novel,
which was also made into a popular movie, portrayed the hedonistic lifestyle
of young sun-worshippers from elite families (taiyo-zoku, the "sun-tribe"),
who hung out on Shonan beaches. Lying as it does on the edge of the
Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area, the Shonan region is nowadays a leading
resort area, oriented to surfing, sailboating, and other water sports.
The region's name, Shonan, derives from a scenic region in Hunan, China,
encapsulated in the phrase 瀟湘湖南 (Chinese pinyin: "xiāo xiāng hú nán";
Japanese: "shosho konan"). This phrase refers to a beautiful area centered
on the Xiao River (瀟江) and the Xiang River (湘江) south of the Yangtze River
in Hunan. Often praised in Chinese poetry, its scenery became a popular
subject of paintings in both medieval China and Japan. In Japan, the scenery
of the Shonan area was thought to be similar to the scenery around the Xiao
and Xiang rivers in Hunan, China; hence the term "Shonan" (Chinese pinyin:
"xiang1 nan2", another name for the southern Hunan region) came to be
applied to the area around Enoshima in Japan.
Besides the similarity in scenery, the two areas both had flood-basin lakes.
The lake in China, which still exists, is Lake Dongting (洞庭湖). Among others,
the lake is fed by the Xiang and Xiao rivers (the Xiao is a tributary of the
Xiang). In Japan, the corresponding flood-basin lake (which no longer exists
but was mentioned in the Enoshima Engi) was probably located along the
course of the Kashio River, which flows into Sagami Bay (via the Katase
River) at Enoshima.
When Singapore was occupied by Japan, from February 15, 1942 to September
12, 1945, the name was changed to Shonan (or Shonan-tō, Shonan Island).
However, this Shonan was written as 昭南 and not the same as Shonan in
Japan.
Shonan is featured in a number of manga and anime, most prominently in
Shonan Bakusozoku (Bomber Bikers of Shonan; also made into live-action
movies) and Shonan Junai Gumi.
(Article based on Wikipedia article and used under the GNU Free Documentation License)
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