Chimei: names of prefectures Page 1 of 5

Chimei: Names of Places

Todofuken: Names of Prefectures

Map

Japan is divided into 47 prefectures. There are four titles for prefectures; To (Tokyo), Do
(Hokkaido), Fu (Osaka and Kyoto) and Ken (others). Each Todofuken belong to districts.
Categorizing of districts depends on each occasion or office.

Kanji Pronunciation Meaning of Each Characters

1 Hokkaido north/sea/way

Tohoku district

Tohoku east/north

2 Aomori-ken blue/forest

3 Iwate-ken rock/hand

4 Miyagi-ken palace/castle

5 Akita-ken autumn/rice field

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6 Yamagata-ken mountain/figure

7 Fukushima-ken happiness/island

Kantoh district

Kantoh gate/east

8 Ibaragi-ken thorn/castle

9 Tochigi-ken buckeye/tree

10 Gumma-ken group/horse

11 Saitama-ken ?/jade

12 Chiba-ken thousand/leaf

13 Tokyo-to east/capital

14 Kanagawa-ken God/?/river

Koshinetsu district

Koshinetsu

15 Niigata-ken new/lagoon

16 Toyama-ken wealth/mountain

17 Ishikawa-ken stone/river

18 Fukui-ken happy/well

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19 Yamanashi-ken mountain/pear

20 Nagano-ken long/field

Chubu district

Chubu central/part

21 Gifu-ken

22 Shizuoka-ken peaceful/hill

23 Aichi-ken love/knowledge

24 Mie-ken three/heavy

Kansai or Kinki district

Note: Kansai sometimes means more larger district, whole western Japan

Kansai gate/west

Kinki near/?

25 Shiga-ken

26 Kyoto-fu capital/capital

27 Osaka-fu big/?

28 Hyogo-ken soldier/warehouse

29 Nara-ken ?/good

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30 Wakayama-ken harmony/song/mountain

Chugoku district

Note: The same characters and pronunciation are used for China

Chugoku central/country

31 Tottori-ken bird/take

32 Shimane-ken island/root

33 Okayama-ken hill/mountain

34 Hiroshima-ken wide/island

35 Yamaguchi-ken mountain/mouth

Shikoku district

Shikoku four/country

36 Tokushima-ken virtue/island

37 Kagawa-ken aroma/river

38 Ehime-ken love/princess

39 Kochi-ken high/knowledge

Kyushu district

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Kyushu nine/island

40 Fukuoka-ken happy/hill

41 Saga-ken help/?

42 Nagasaki-ken long/peninsular

43 Kumamoto-ken bear/origin

44 Oita-ken big/divide

45 Miyazaki-ken castle/peninsular

46 Kagoshima-ken deer/child/island

47 Okinawa-ken offshore/rope

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