Or Springfield, for that matter...
Japanese place names are generally, well, less than creative. Since we're sitting in Sagami Bay today waiting to enter Tokyo Bay, let's look at some of the place names on the Miura peninsula on which Yokosuka sits.
We begin with the town of Miura 三浦 for which the peninsula is named. The name means "three beaches," because, being at the southern end of the peninsula, it has, well, three beaches.
Going up the west side, we encounter Nagai 長井 or "head [water] well," and then Hayama 葉山 or "leaf mountain," whose two sections are Shimoyamaguchi 下山口 or "lower mountain entrance" and Isshiki 一色 or "one color."
Next stop is Zushi, which today is written 逗子 but was originally 豆師, though neither combination makes any sense: the word "zushi" is simply an antiquated way of saying "street."
Next we come to Kamakura 鎌倉, the first town for which the name has an interesting origin: "kama" 鎌 means sickle but the word "kama" can also mean a cooking pot 竃, and "kura" 倉 means "granary" (in the west it would be a silo, but they look different in ancient Japan). Both the cooking pot and the granary open in one spot and are closed elsewhere, just like Kamakura which is open to the sea but surrounded by mountains on the other three sides. Also, changing 竃 to 鎌 might have a connection to the militaristic government that ruled Japan from Kamakura in the middle ages, because a sickle was also a weapon, particularly the kind that would have been used by infantry at the time.
And at no extra charge...
Yokohama means "side harbor." Kyoto means "capital capital" (meaning "really the capital"), and Tokyo means "east capital". Hiroshima means "wide island." Osaka means "big hill." And the beat goes on...
Is it fair to say that the Japanese place name is in some way a physical description of the place itself? I know that in the Old World, place names tended to be that way but not to the same extent, and often the meaning of the place name was in an ancient language now in disuse. It appears very few place names in the United States are descriptive of the place.
Thank you for your contributions to these threads. Always very informative.