Shōnan

Centered on Sagami River, about 60 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, the Shōnan region stretches from Ninomiya in the west to Fujisawa in the east, including Ōiso, Hiratsuka, and Chigasaki.

During the 1880s, when the custom of swimming in the ocean was introduced into Japan, the "Shonan" region became a resort area for the politicians and rich people from Tokyo.

In postwar times, the Shōnan region gained prominence in Ishihara Shintaro's prize-winning 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.

One is that Kanagawa Prefecture where the Shōnan region is located was, until the first half of the 19th century, called Sagami-no-kuni (相模国) or Sōshū (相州) (as that phrase remains in Sagami River and Sagami Bay) and, that Shōnan was in the south (南) of Sōshū (the water sign 氵 of the Kanji radicals having been added to "相" to make it more poetic).