This article is about a region of Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. For the former town in Chiba Prefecture, see Shōnan, Chiba

Shonan, Chiba

was a town located in Higashikatsushika District, Chiba Prefecture, Japan.On April 1, 1889 the villages of Kazahaya and Tega were established within the district of Minamisōma District, Chiba. On April 1, 1897, Minamisōma District merged with Higashikatsushika District. Shōnan Village was formed...

. For the Japanese football club, see Shonan Bellmare

Shonan Bellmare

are a Japanese professional football club, currently playing in the J. League Division 2. The team is located in Hiratsuka, in the west of Kanagawa Prefecture; their home stadium is Hiratsuka Athletics Stadium in Hiratsuka. The name Bellmare is derived from the Latin "bellum" for "war" and "mare"...

.

is the name of a region along the coast of Sagami Bay

Sagami Bay

Sagami Bay , also known as the Sagami Gulf or Sagami Sea, lies south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshū, central Japan, contained within the scope of the Miura Peninsula, in Kanagawa, to the east, the Izu Peninsula, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to the west, and the Shōnan coastline to the north, while the...

 in central Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Centered on Enoshima

Enoshima

is a small island, about 4 km in circumference, at the mouth of the Katase River, which flows into Sagami Bay in Japan. Part of the city of Fujisawa, it is linked to the Katase section of the same city on the mainland by a 600 meter-long bridge...

, an island about 50 kilometers southwest of Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, the Shōnan region stretches from Ōiso

Oiso, Kanagawa

is a town located in Naka District, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2010, the town had an estimated population of 32,725 and a density of 1,910 persons per km². The total area was 17.18 km².-Geography:...

 in the west to Hayama

Hayama, Kanagawa

is a town located in Miura District, Kanagawa Prefecture, on central Honshū, Japan. As of 2010, the town had an estimated population of 32,386 and a density of 1,900 per km². The total area was 17.06 km²...

 in the east, including Chigasaki

Chigasaki, Kanagawa

is a city located in central, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2010, the city had an estimated population of 234,400 and a density of 6,540 persons per km²...

, Kamakura

Kamakura, Kanagawa

is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called .Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the...

 and Hiratsuka

Hiratsuka, Kanagawa

is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2010, the city had an estimated population of 259,991 and the density of 3,830 persons per km²...

. Because of the bay, the region benefits from a mild climate and long beaches covered with dark volcanic sand.

In postwar times, the Shōnan region gained prominence in Ishihara Shintaro

Shintaro Ishihara

is a Japanese author, actor, politician and the governor of Tokyo since 1999.- Early life and artistic career :Shintarō was born in Suma-ku, Kobe. His father Kiyoshi was an employee, later a general manager, of a shipping company. Shintarō grew up in Zushi...

's prize-winning

Akutagawa Prize

The is a Japanese literary award presented semi-annually. It was established in 1935 by Kan Kikuchi, then-editor of Bungeishunjū magazine, in memory of author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa...

 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 Shōnan beaches. Lying as it does on the edge of the Tokyo-Yokohama

Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

 metropolitan area

Greater Tokyo Area

The Greater Tokyo Area is a large metropolitan area in Kantō region, Japan, consisting of most of the prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tokyo . In Japanese, it is referred to by various terms, including the , , and others....

, the Shōnan region is nowadays a leading resort

Resort

A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, attracting visitors for holidays or vacations. Resorts are places, towns or sometimes commercial establishment operated by a single company....

 area, oriented to surfing

Surfing

Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...

, sailboating, and other water sports.

The region's name, Shōnan, derives from a scenic region in Hunan

Hunan

' is a province of South-Central China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, encapsulated in the phrase 瀟湘湖南 (Chinese pinyin

Pinyin

Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

: "xiāo xiāng hú nán"; Japanese: "shōshō konan"). This phrase refers to a beautiful area centered on the Xiao River

Xiao River

Xiao River is a river of China, and tributary to the Xiang River. It is part of the East China Sea basin....

 (瀟江) and the Xiang River

Xiang River

The Xiang River , in older transliterations as the Siang River or Hsiang River, is a river in southern China...

 (湘江) south of the Yangtze River

Yangtze River

The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...

 in Hunan. Often praised in Chinese poetry

Chinese poetry

Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, which includes various versions of Chinese language, including Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Yue Chinese, as well as many other historical and vernacular varieties of the Chinese language...

, its scenery became a popular subject of paintings in both medieval China

History of China

Chinese civilization originated in various regional centers along both the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valleys in the Neolithic era, but the Yellow River is said to be the Cradle of Chinese Civilization. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest...

 and Japan

History of Japan

The history of Japan encompasses the history of the islands of Japan and the Japanese people, spanning the ancient history of the region to the modern history of Japan as a nation state. Following the last ice age, around 12,000 BC, the rich ecosystem of the Japanese Archipelago fostered human...

. In Japan, the scenery of the Shōnan area was thought to be similar to the scenery around the Xiao and Xiang rivers in Hunan, China; hence the term "Shōnan" (Chinese pinyin

Pinyin

Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

: "xiāng nán", 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. 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

Enoshima Engi

The Enoshima Engi is a history of the temples and shrines on Enoshima Island in Sagami Bay. It was written in Chinese, the scholarly language of the time, by the Japanese Buddhist monk Kōkei in 1047 AD....

) was probably located along the course of the Kashio River

Kashio River

thumb|320px|Kashio river from Sakura bridgeThe is a Class II river in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about 50 kilometers southwest of Tokyo. It begins in Kashio, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama at the confluence of the Akuwa River and the Hiradonagaya River and flows for 11 kilometers to the city of Fujisawa,...

, which flows into Sagami Bay (via the Katase River

Katase River

The is a segment of a river in Shonan, central Japan, about 50 kilometers southwest of Tokyo.The Katase is an approximately 3-kilometer-long segment of the river from Kawana , Fujisawa, where the Sakai River and Kashio River join, to a point at Enoshima Island, where the river flows into Sagami Bay...

) at Enoshima.

J-Pop Empress Ayumi Hamasaki

Ayumi Hamasaki

is a Japanese singer-songwriter, record producer, model, lyricist, and actress. Also called "Ayu" by her fans, Hamasaki has been dubbed the "Empress of Pop" because of her popularity and widespread influence in Japan and throughout Asia. Born and raised in Fukuoka, she moved to Tokyo at fourteen to...

has been known to have set up a restaurant here called "Rainbow House" around 2002-2004. it was occasionally used in episodes of her talkshow Ayuready?.