鎌倉
Kamakuraかまくら
sickle storehouse — or a hearth-shaped valley
- 鎌kama — sickle — or 'hearth' (竈) in the landform theory
- 倉kura — storehouse — or 'valley' (谷) in the landform theory
Kamakura's own city hall lists seven origins for its name and endorses none. A poisoned arrow, a buried sickle, an Ainu word, a hearth. The competing stories agree on one thing: the shape of the ground.
Kamakura's city hall publishes a list of seven possible origins for the name and endorses none of them. Legend offers a corpse-store from an emperor's poisoned arrow, and a sickle buried by a Fujiwara minister. Geography offers a hearth — the ground enclosed by hills on three sides and open on the fourth, which is also why the second character is read as valley rather than storehouse. There is also an Ainu word, a shore of reeds, a shrine storehouse borrowed from a namesake on Mount Hiei, and a chain of sound-shifts starting from Takakura, a district name to the west. The city declines to choose. The land, at least, is not in dispute.
Modern proof
The city's own page describes the ground the hearth theory is named for: hills to the east, west and north, sea to the south. The survey data agrees — a station at nine metres, ridges above a hundred and thirty.
sourceThe old centre of Kamakura is closed by hills on the east, west and north, and open to Sagami Bay on the south. By the national survey's 1 m elevation model, the station stands at 9.3 m while the ridges reach 133.2 m to the north, 99.9 m to the east and 86.6 m to the west; the beach to the south is 5 m. That shape is what the hearth theory is named for.
Sources
- 鎌倉市「地名由来」(「いろいろな説がありますが、主なものを紹介します」として伝説的・地形的・その他の計7説を併記。市として特定の説を採らない旨。地形説の項に「東・西・北の三方が山で、南が海になっています」の記載)[government]
- 国土地理院 地理院地図(標高: 基盤地図情報数値標高モデル 1mメッシュ〈レーザ〉。鎌倉駅 9.3m・北の丘陵 133.2m〈35.3352,139.5587〉・東の丘陵 99.9m〈35.3152,139.5667〉・西の丘陵 86.6m〈35.3272,139.5347〉・由比ヶ浜 5.0m〈35.3080,139.5470〉。各点は標高APIで再現可能。実測は当方)[government]