- Shōnan
: "This article is about the Japanese region; there is also a town of
Shonan, Chiba and a football club calledShonan Bellmare ."Shōnan (湘南) is the name of a resort-oriented region along the coast of
Sagami Bay in centralJapan . Centered onEnoshima , an island about 50 kilometers southwest ofTokyo , 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 leadingresort area, oriented tosurfing , 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: "xiāo xiāng hú nán"; Japanese: "shosho konan"). This phrase refers to a beautiful area centered on theXiao River (瀟江) and theXiang River (湘江) south of theYangtze River in Hunan. Often praised inChinese 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: "xiang1 nan2", another name for the 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 theKashio River , which flows into Sagami Bay (via theKatase River ) at Enoshima.When
Singapore was occupied by Japan, fromFebruary 15 1942 toSeptember 12 1945 , the name was changed to Shōnan (or Shōnan-tō, Shōnan Island). However, this Shōnan was written as 昭南 and not the same as Shōnan in Japan.Shonan is featured in a number of
manga andanime , most prominently in "Shonan Bakusozoku" ("Bomber Bikers of Shonan"; also made into live-action movies) and "Shonan Junai Gumi ".
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