Japanese Place Names - Direction

Direction

Some names contain a word indicating a direction:

  • chūō (中央) or naka- (中) - central; e.g., Yokosuka Chūō; Naka-Okachimachi
  • higashi (東) - east
  • kita (北) - north; e.g., Kita-ku, literally meaning North Ward
  • minami (南) - south
  • nishi (西) - west
  • u (右) ("right") and sa (左) ("left"), directions relative to the Kyōto Imperial Palace (and from the viewpoint of the Emperor, who faces south, so that sa is east and u is west): Sakyō-ku, Ukyō-ku

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Famous quotes containing the word direction:

    Virtuous people are simply those who have ... not been tempted sufficiently, because they live in a vegetative state, or because their purposes are so concentrated in one direction that they have not had the leisure to glance around them.
    Isadora Duncan (1878–1927)

    German poetry is going in a very different direction from French poetry.... Its language has become more sober, more factual. It distrusts “beauty.” It tries to be truthful.
    Paul Celan [Paul Antschel] (1920–1970)

    Each man has his own vocation. The talent is the call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him. He has faculties silently inviting him thither to endless exertion. He is like a ship in the river; he runs against obstructions on every side but one; on that side all obstruction is taken away, and he sweeps serenely over a deepening channel into an infinite sea.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)