Japanese Place Names - Geographic Features

Geographic Features

Geographic features figure prominently in Japanese place names. Some examples are

  • hama(浜) for a beach; e.g. Hamamatsu
  • hantō (半島) for a peninsula; e.g., Izu Hanto
  • ishi (石) or iwa (岩) for a rock; e.g., Ishikawa Prefecture; Iwate Prefecture
  • izumi (泉) for a spring; e.g., Hiraizumi, Iwate
  • kaikyō (海峡) for a strait; e.g., Bungo kaikyō
  • kawa or -gawa (川 or 河) for a river; e.g., Asakawa
  • ko (湖) for a lake; e.g., Biwa-ko, Kizaki-ko
  • nada (灘) for a sea
  • oka (岡) for a hill; e.g., Fukuoka
  • saki (崎) or misaki (岬) for a promontory; e.g., Miyazaki city
  • san or -zan (山) for a mountain; e.g., Aso-san
  • sawa or -zawa (沢) for a stream; e.g., Mizusawa, Iwate
  • shima or -jima (島) or tō for an island; e.g., Ie-shima, Iwo Jima, Okinawa Honto
  • tani or -dani (谷) for a valley
  • wan (湾) for a headland or bay; e.g., Sagami-wan
  • yama (山) for a mountain; e.g., Yamanashi Prefecture

Read more about this topic:  Japanese Place Names

Famous quotes containing the word features:

    “All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event—in the living act, the undoubted deed—there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask!”
    —Herman Melville (1819–1891)