Chūgoku region

Chūgoku region
中国地方
Region

Map showing the Chūgoku region of Japan. It comprises the far-west area of the island of Honshu.

The Chūgoku region in Japan
Area
 • Total 31,922.26 km2 (12,325.25 sq mi)
Population (1 October 2010)[1]
 • Total 7,563,428
 • Density 240/km2 (610/sq mi)
Time zone JST (UTC+9)

The Chūgoku region (中国地方 Chūgoku-chihō), also known as the San'in-San'yō region (山陰山陽地方 San'in san'yō-chihō), is the westernmost region of Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It consists of the prefectures of Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori and Yamaguchi.[2] In 2010 it had a population of 7,563,428.[1]

History

“Chūgoku” literally means “middle country”, but the origin of the name is unclear. Historically, Japan was divided into a number of provinces called koku, which were in turn classified according to both their power and their distances from the administrative center in Kansai. Under the latter classification, most provinces are divided into “near countries” (近国 kingoku), “middle countries” (中国 chūgoku), and “far countries” (遠国 ongoku). Therefore, one explanation is that Chūgoku was originally used to refer to the collection of “middle countries” to the west of the capital. However, only five (fewer than half) of the provinces normally considered part of Chūgoku region were in fact classified as middle countries, and the term never applied to the many middle countries to the east of Kansai. Therefore, an alternative explanation is that Chūgoku referred to provinces between Kansai and Kyūshū, which was historically important as the link between Japan and mainland Asia.

Historically, Chūgoku referred to the 16 provinces of San’indō (山陰道) and San’yōdō (山陽道), which led to the region’s alternative name described below. However, because some of the easternmost provinces were later subsumed into prefectures based primarily in Kansai, those areas are, strictly speaking, not part of the Chūgoku region in modern usage.

In Japanese, the characters 中国 and the reading Chūgoku began to be used to mean “China” after the founding of the Republic of China. The same characters are used in Chinese to refer to China, but pronounced Zhōngguó, lit. “Middle Kingdom” or “Middle Country” (Wade Giles: Chungkuo). It is similar to the use of the West Country in English for a region of England.

Primarily in the tourism industry, in order to avoid confusing the Chūgoku region with China, the Chūgoku region is also called the “San’in‐San’yō region”. San’in (“yīn of the mountains”) is the northern part facing the Sea of Japan. San’yō (“yáng of the mountains”) is the southern part facing the Seto Inland Sea. These names were created using the yīnyáng‐based place‐naming scheme.

Outline

The Chūgoku region consists of the following prefectures: Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Shimane, and Tottori. Okayama is also included, although only Bitchū Province was considered a Middle Country; Mimasaka Province and Bizen Province, the other two components of modern-day Okayama, were considered Near Countries.

The Chūgoku region is characterized by irregular rolling hills and limited plain areas and is divided into two distinct parts by mountains running east and west through its center.

The city of Hiroshima, the "capital" of the Chūgoku region, was rebuilt after being destroyed by an atomic bomb in 1945, and is now an industrial metropolis of more than one million people.

Overfishing and pollution reduced the productivity of the Inland Sea fishing grounds; and San'yo is an area concentrated on heavy industry. In contrast, San'in is less industrialized with an agricultural economy.

Kyūshū, Shikoku, and Kansai neighbor the Chūgoku region.

Cities

Designated cities
Core cities

Sightseeing

Fiction

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Statistics Bureau (26 October 2011). "平成 22 年国勢調査の概要" (PDF). Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  2. ↑ Chugoku Regional Tourism Promotion Association "Overview of Chugoku Region", Chugoku Regional Tourism Portal Site: Navigate Chugoku. Accessed 15 September 2013.

Bibliography

External links

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Chugoku.

Coordinates: 35°03′N 134°04′E / 35.050°N 134.067°E / 35.050; 134.067

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.