Zushi & Hayama Local Quiz Practice: Questions and Explanations

Correct answerJR Zushi Station and Keikyu Zushi-Hayama Station

Hayama Town has no railway line of its own, so JR Zushi Station and Keikyu Zushi-Hayama Station serve as the only gateways for both residents and visitors. From either station, buses run onward toward the beaches, the Imperial Villa, and other parts of town, making a bus transfer an unavoidable step in any trip to Hayama. During the peak summer season, the bus stops outside these stations can draw long queues of beachgoers.

Source:What kind of place is Hayama?

Correct answerWakae Island

Wakaejima is an artificial, stone-piled island-like structure that still survives offshore from Zaimokuza Beach, and Zushi City identifies it as Japan's oldest surviving port construction. Built during the Kamakura period, nearly eight centuries ago, parts of its stonework still emerge above the waterline at low tide, offering a rare, tangible trace of medieval harbor engineering.

Source:Important Cultural Properties in Zushi

Correct answerKamakura and the Miura Peninsula

Nagoe Kiridoshi is a mountain pass cut through the ridges south of Kamakura, and for centuries it served as a key route linking Kamakura with the Miura Peninsula. The surrounding area still preserves flat terraces and cut cliffs from the medieval period, reflecting the pass's dual role in both the defense of Kamakura and the movement of goods and people across the peninsula.

Source:National Historic Site: Nagoe Kiridoshi Pass

Correct answerIsshiki Beach

Isshiki Beach stretches out directly in front of both the Hayama Imperial Villa and Hayama Shiosai Park, making it an unusual stretch of coast where an imperial, tranquil backdrop coexists with a lively public swimming beach. The Hayama Tourism Association highlights this location as ideal for strolling and for watching the sunset over Sagami Bay.

Source:Beaches, Parks, and Nature

Correct answerRyugu Festival

Every January, fishing boats circle around Najima as part of the Ryugu Festival, a ritual held to pray for a bountiful catch and safety at sea in the coming year. Framed by the small offshore island and the red torii gate of Morito Shrine, the festival is introduced by the local tourism association as a winter tradition that links Hayama's fishing life with its religious customs.

Source:Sightseeing Spots

Correct answerMisogi Bridge

Misogi Bridge is the red bridge connecting Morito Shrine to Morito Beach, and its name is said to come from the custom of purifying oneself in seawater — misogi — before important religious rites. Linking a shrine directly to the shoreline in a single span, the bridge is presented by the Hayama Tourism Association as a symbol of how faith and coastal life intertwine in this part of town.

Source:Sightseeing Spots

Correct answerFrom the Meiji period

Zushi City's own materials explain that the area began developing as a summer resort and villa district from the Meiji period onward. Around the same time that rail travel expanded and sea bathing became fashionable, writers and businessmen from Tokyo started building villas here, a trend that laid the groundwork for both the beach's later popularity and today's residential streets.

Source:ABOUT ZUSHI

Correct answerKeio University's swimming club

Hayama Town credits an event in 1912, when members of Keio University's swimming club sailed a yacht they had built as an escort boat off Morito, as one of the earliest steps in the history of modern Japanese yachting. What began with a single homemade boat built by students eventually helped shape Hayama's present-day identity as a town built around its harbor and sailing culture.

Source:Hayama, the Town of Yachting, and 2020

Correct answerFalse

Hikage Chaya, in Horiuchi, Hayama, is a long-established restaurant dating back to the Edo period, and its Taisho-era guest-room building and stone storehouse still stand today. The Hayama Tourism Association describes it as a living reminder of the resort town once favored by writers and celebrities, making clear that it is not a comparatively recent, Showa-era establishment.

Source:Sightseeing Spots

Correct answerTrue

In Kotsubo, Zushi, the 'Kotsubo Satoumi-Satoyama Project' continues an effort to sink spawning beds, built from locally thinned timber, onto the seafloor to help bigfin reef squid lay their eggs. Framed by Zushi City as a community-wide initiative to hand a rich fishing ground on to the future, the project ties together local bonds and the bounty of the sea in a single ongoing activity.

Source:Connecting Kotsubo's Sea to the Future: The Bonds and Bounty Woven by the 'Aori Project'

Correct answerYagura burial caves and cremation sites

According to Zushi City's explanation, the area around Nagoe Kiridoshi contains not only flat terraces and cut cliffs but also numerous yagura burial caves and cremation sites. These remains offer valuable clues to what the edge of the medieval city of Kamakura once looked like, showing that the pass carries a historical significance that goes well beyond its role as a simple transit route.

Source:国指定史跡　名越切通

Correct answerNatural monument

The great ginkgo tree of Goryo Shrine, along with the trees around it in Numama, Zushi, is designated as a prefectural natural monument. Having survived for a very long span of years, this large tree is protected as a defining feature of the shrine's own precinct landscape, standing as a symbol of how nature and local religious life come together in this district.

Source:Zushi City: Nationally and Prefecturally Designated Cultural Properties

Correct answerThe half-mile beach where the sun is born

Zushi City's official website introduces Zushi Beach with the nickname 'the half-mile beach where the sun is born.' The same page describes windsurfers and dinghies coloring the water against a backdrop of Enoshima and Mount Fuji, and the catchphrase has become a memorable centerpiece of the city's own tourism promotion.

Source:Zushi City: Zushi Beach (Location Library)

Correct answerWagae-jima

Zushi City's historical timeline records that Wagae-jima was built off Kotsubo-Iijima in 1232 and subsequently functioned as a place of trade with East Asia. Serving as an outer port for Kamakura, it stands as an important example of how the city remained connected to maritime trade routes despite its own shallow, exposed coastline.

Source:Zushi City: History of the City

Correct answerSix

Under the 1889 municipal system, six separate villages merged to form the new Hayama Village. This consolidation of what had been independent fishing and farming communities into a single municipality established the basic administrative shape that Hayama Town still follows today, marking the starting point of the town's modern history.

Source:Hayama Town: The Town's Founding and History

Correct answerDr. Baelz

Hayama Town's history explains that Dr. Baelz, a well-known foreign advisor to the Meiji government, visited Hayama alongside the Italian minister Martino and praised its climate and scenery, an endorsement that helped make the town widely known as a health resort. A physician's professional judgment, in other words, helped accelerate Hayama's growth as a villa district.

Source:Hayama Town: The Town's Founding and History

Correct answerThe Hayama Imperial Villa

The Hayama Imperial Villa was completed in 1894, and from that point on Hayama became widely known as a resort where members of the imperial family would stay. The villa's presence was more than the addition of a single building; it effectively set the direction for the town's subsequent development as a villa district and shaped how the surrounding landscape would later be maintained.

Source:Hayama Town: The Town's Founding and History

Correct answerThe former attached residence of the Hayama Imperial Villa

Hayama Shiosai Park was opened on the site of a former annex to the Hayama Imperial Villa, turning land once tied to the imperial family into a public park open to residents and visitors alike. Its Japanese garden preserves a calm, dignified atmosphere that still echoes the character of the residence that once stood there.

Source:Hayama Town: Representative Parks in Hayama

Correct answerMount Fuji, the Izu Peninsula, and Oshima

Hayama Town's materials describe the view from the park's black-pine grove as taking in Mount Fuji, the Izu Peninsula, and Oshima Island all at once. The well-situated seaside grounds that once belonged to an imperial annex have carried their scenic value straight into the present, making this vista one of the park's signature attractions.

Source:Hayama Town: Representative Parks in Hayama

Correct answerAquarium

Nango-Kaminoyama Park brings together facilities that support community sports, including a baseball field, tennis courts, and a multipurpose field with an athletics track. It does not, however, include any aquarium-style exhibit facility, reflecting its role as a hub for exercise and recreation rather than for wildlife displays.

Source:Hayama Town: Representative Parks in Hayama

Correct answerThree

The hiking course at the prefectural Hayama Sangaokayama Green Space has three separate trailheads, and Hayama Town's materials present it as an easily accessible nature trail. Having multiple entry points lets visitors choose a route that suits their available time and stamina, which is part of why the trail remains a local favorite.

Source:Hayama Town: Goal 1, Maintaining a Healthy Ecosystem Rich in People and Nature

Correct answerNeba-Shaki!!

The Zushi Akamoku Project, which aims to promote Kotsubo-grown akamoku seaweed, runs stamp rallies, cooking classes, and other events under the catchphrase "Neba-Shaki!!" The initiative is working to turn a locally harvested seaweed into what organizers call "Zushi's soul food," capturing its distinctive sticky-yet-crunchy texture in a short, catchy phrase.

Source:逗子の「アカモク」

Correct answerBigfin reef squid

Since 2022, local fishermen and elementary-school children in Kotsubo have worked together to build spawning beds for bigfin reef squid as part of the 'Kotsubo Satoumi-Satoyama Project.' The effort gives children a direct, hands-on role in fishing and marine conservation, turning the project into a practical lesson in passing a healthy sea on to the next generation.

Source:Connecting Kotsubo's Sea to the Future: The Bonds and Bounty Woven by the 'Aori Project'

Correct answerKotsubo Fisherman's Taxi

Kotsubo Fishing Port runs the 'Kotsubo Fisherman's Taxi,' a service that lets visitors tour the sea off Zushi by boat together with local fishermen, alongside fishing-experience events and boat-side direct sales. Fully expanded since fiscal 2021, it represents a newer style of maritime business in which the same fishermen double as guides for visiting tourists.

Source:Kotsubo Fishing Port's Maritime Industry Promotion

Correct answer2010 (32,766)

Hayama Town's population statistics record that the population reached 32,766 in 2010, the first time in the town's history that the total surpassed 30,000. The figure offers a concrete, statistical way to trace how the town gradually shifted in character from a villa resort toward a residential community while its population continued to grow.

Source:町の誕生・歴史

Correct answerStanding wooden Amida triad

Among Zushi City's designated sculptures, the standing wooden Amida triad is the one work that depicts Amida Nyorai together with the two attendant bodhisattvas flanking him. The bronze bell dated to Oei 10, also a city-designated property, is classified as a craft object rather than a sculpture, so answering correctly requires distinguishing between these categories of cultural property.

Source:逗子市内所在の重要文化財指定物件

Correct answerGandenji

The city-designated Kannondo Hall stands within the grounds of Gandenji, a temple in Hisagi 5-chome, Zushi, that is also known as one of the thirty-three temples of the Bando Kannon pilgrimage. Because other cultural properties are also located in the Hisagi area, this question calls for correctly linking the district, the temple's name, and the type of building together.

Source:逗子市内所在の重要文化財指定物件

Correct answerAt the request of a monk named Oh-Amidabutsu, with help from regent Hojo Yasutoki, in one month

According to the Azuma Kagami chronicle, a monk named Oh-Amidabutsu, grieved by shipwrecks off Zaimokuza, petitioned for a port to be built, and with the cooperation of shogunal regent Hojo Yasutoki, Wagae-jima was completed in just one month. The episode survives as an account of how a single monk's request grew, with the shogunate's backing, into a Kamakura-period public works project.

Source:Important Cultural Properties in Zushi

Correct answerZushi City

The prefecturally designated important cultural properties excavated from the Ikego Site Group are owned and managed by Zushi City, the municipality where the site is located. Because artifacts from the Paleolithic period all the way through the Meiji and Taisho eras have been unearthed there, knowing exactly who bears responsibility for their custody and public display is part of the specialist knowledge this question tests.

Source:神奈川県重要文化財（池子遺跡群）

Correct answerAlong the Tagoe River

Zushi City's historical timeline records that Rokudai Gozen, the eldest son of Taira no Koremori, was executed along the banks of the Tagoe River in 1199. As a descendant of the defeated Taira side who was pursued for years by the Kamakura shogunate, his final moments are recorded in local history together with the name of the river that still runs through Zushi.

Source:市の歴史

Correct answerTagoe Village

According to Zushi City's history, seven villages, including Zushi, Numama, and Sakurayama, merged under the municipal system to form a single village named Tagoe, taking its name from the Tagoe River. This merger, which shaped the basic administrative outline of present-day Zushi, was the first step in a progression that eventually led to Zushi Town and then Zushi City.

Source:市の歴史

Correct answerFishing-experience events

At Kotsubo Fishing Port, fishing-experience events were fully expanded starting in fiscal 2021, becoming, alongside boat-side direct sales and boat tours with local fishermen, one of the pillars of the port's maritime-industry promotion. Rather than simply trying to increase the catch, the port has been broadening the range of experiences it offers to visitors.

Source:小坪漁港の海業振興について

Correct answerA collective name for Horiuchi and Isshiki

Hayama Town's history explains that in records from the Sengoku period, the name 'Hayama' likely referred collectively to what were then Horiuchi and Isshiki, rather than to the wider area it names today. The shift from a name covering only part of the area to one covering the whole modern town makes for an interesting case study in how place names evolve over time.

Source:町の誕生・歴史

Correct answerMartino

Around 1887, the Italian minister to Japan, Martino, promoted the idea that Hayama was well suited both for escaping summer heat and for milder winters, and a memorial stone credits him with helping spread word of the town's appeal. Through his position as a diplomat, he is said to have helped make Hayama's favorable climate known both within Japan and abroad.

Source:顕彰碑（ベルツ博士・マルチィーノ公使）

Correct answerThe collection of Emperor Shōwa

Hayama Town highlights the collection of Emperor Showa and specimens of deep-sea organisms as distinctive features of Hayama Shiosai Museum's exhibits. Alongside its main permanent displays centered on marine life from Sagami Bay, these imperial-connected holdings give the museum a character that sets it apart from other marine-life museums elsewhere in Japan.

Source:葉山しおさい博物館

Correct answerHoriuchi

The main hall of Morito Shrine, a building designated as an important cultural property by Hayama Town, is located in the Horiuchi district. Morito Shrine, traditionally said to have been founded by Minamoto no Yoritomo, is a symbol of Hayama alongside Najima Island and its red torii gate, making the exact district of its main hall a detail worth pinning down precisely.

Source:指定・登録文化財

Correct answerIsshiki

The Hayama Town-designated Isshiki Maeda Koshin tower is, as its name suggests, a stone monument located in the Isshiki district. Stone towers built out of Koshin folk-belief practices survive in varying numbers and states of preservation from district to district, and this case, where the property's name matches its district, offers a useful entry point into the town's stone-monument heritage.

Source:指定・登録文化財

Correct answerGandenji is founded → Rokudai Gozen is executed → Wagaejima is built → Tōshōji is founded

The four landmark events in Zushi's history run in this order: Gandenji's founding in 722, Rokudai Gozen's execution in 1199, Wagaejima's construction in 1232, and Toshoji's founding in 1333. Spanning a temple founded in the Nara period through a Kamakura-era tragedy and harbor project to another temple founded in the Nanboku-cho era, this ordering question surveys more than five centuries of Zushi's history in a single sequence.

Source:市の歴史

Correct answer35

Zushi City states that its cultural properties designated by the national government, the prefecture, and the city together total 35. Because these span a wide range of categories, from historic sites and buildings to sculptures, paintings, craft objects, and natural monuments, this question rewards understanding not just the total count but the variety hidden within it.

Source:逗子市内の重要文化財

Correct answerAbout 150

Zushi City reports that there are 146 known locations containing buried cultural properties within the city. From the Paleolithic-era Ikego Site Group to medieval remains around Nagoe Kiridoshi, the figure shows just how widely traces of history lie hidden across the city, and it is also the reason archaeological surveys are sometimes required before construction work such as rebuilding a house.

Source:逗子市内の重要文化財