Shonan: What the names refer to | LoreMania
The area covered by the name "Shonan" varies surprisingly depending on the source. Kanagawa Prefecture officially defines the "Shonan region" as five cities and three towns, but this quiz covers only part of that area. There is also a second kind of "naming" worth knowing: the origin of the word "Shonan" itself, traced to Shigitatsu-an in Oiso.
Kanagawa Prefecture's official site defines the Shonan region as five cities, Hiratsuka, Fujisawa, Chigasaki, Hadano, and Isehara, plus three towns, Samukawa, Oiso, and Ninomiya. Meanwhile, the inscription on the back of a stone marker at Shigitatsu-an in Oiso offers a clue to where the word "Shonan" itself came from as a place name.
Each entry links to a primary source from the relevant municipality. The administrative scope of "Shonan" and the word's own origin are two separate stories, keep them apart using the sources.
What the names refer to: names to know first
Kanagawa officially defines the Shonan region as five cities and three towns, with Fujisawa the most populous — yet "Shonan" itself is a nickname whose boundaries shift from source to source.
Fujisawa City
Kanagawa Prefecture's official site defines the "Shonan region" as five cities, Hiratsuka, Fujisawa, Chigasaki, Hadano, and Isehara, and three towns, Samukawa, Oiso, and Ninomiya. Fujisawa is the most populous of these eight municipalities (about 444,000 people per preliminary 2025 census figures), yet the "Shonan" covered by tourism guides or quizzes like this one is usually a narrower subset, mostly the coastal cluster of Fujisawa, Chigasaki, Hiratsuka, Samukawa, and Oiso. "Shonan" is not a formal administrative name; it is a nickname whose boundaries stretch or shrink depending on the source.
Source:神奈川県「湘南地域」
What the names refer to: connections used in the quiz
The place name "Shonan" is traced to Shigitatsu-an in Oiso, where a stone marker erected in 1664 carries the inscription said to have started it all.
Shigitatsu-an
Trace the word "Shonan" itself back far enough and you arrive at Shigitatsu-an in Oiso. In 1664, when Sogetsu of Odawara erected a stone marker at a scenic spot tied to a Saigyo poem, he inscribed the back with "Chojin Shonan Seizetsu-chi," roughly, "a place of unsurpassed, pure beauty called Shonan," an inscription said to mark the beginning of "Shonan" as a place name. Separate from the prefecture's administrative "Shonan region" (five cities, three towns), this line is the textual basis for calling Oiso the "birthplace of the name."
Source:大磯町「鴫立庵」
FAQ
How many cities and towns make up Kanagawa's official "Shonan region"?
Five cities (Hiratsuka, Fujisawa, Chigasaki, Hadano, Isehara) and three towns (Samukawa, Oiso, Ninomiya), eight municipalities in total.
Where is the origin of the place name "Shonan" traced to?
An inscription, "Chojin Shonan Seizetsu-chi," on the back of a stone marker at Shigitatsu-an in Oiso. The marker was erected in 1664 by a man named Sogetsu of Odawara, long before the eight-municipality administrative 'Shonan region' was ever defined.