I already studied the map before using this [Anki deck](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/2639768625) to learn the location and names of the different prefectures and thought it was a fun and useful exercise to learn to write the prefecture names in Kanji. After having gone through all of them in an afternoon I have to say that I like [和歌山](#fg “わかやま”) the most. It stands for “peace song mountain” and I think that it is a really elegant name.
[和](#fg “わ”) peace [歌](#fg “か”) song [山](#fg “やま”) mountain
Correction edit： [和歌](#fg “わか”) means classical Japanese poem. So the meaning is closer to “poetry mountain” which I prefer over my (incorrect) interpretation.
3 comments
Look up 和歌, it doesn’t mean “peace song”. In fact 和 doesn’t mean peace but Japan(ese) most times it’s used at the start of a word. Honestly it doesn’t even really mean peace that much at all
…No, 和歌 is Japanese poetry, following the 7-5-7-5-7-5..7-7 (various categories based on length, but typically ending with a pair of seven syllable lines) pattern.
So the name is essentially ‘poetry mountain’. Which is still an alright name, but not ‘peace song mountain’.
Personally I prefer 秋田, because true to its name, the autumn scenery is *stunning*.
A lot of place names in Japan are ateji, used for their sound rather than their meaning. 和歌 was chosen because of its nice poetic connotations but it is ultimately being used to represent a sound that possibly predates the use of kanji in Japan. Before the Heian period there were different kanji in use for wakanoura which the name comes from