Yuigahama

Yuigahama (由比ヶ浜海岸?) is a beach near Kamakura, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The relation between the beach and its neighboring areas is complex. Although Yuigahama is legally the entire 3.2 km beach that goes from Inamuragasaki, which separates it from Shichirigahama, to Zaimokuza's Iijima cape, which separates it from Kotsubo and the Miura Peninsula, the name is customarily used to indicate the portion west of the Namerigawa river, while the eastern half is called Zaimokuza Beach (材木座海岸?). This is the reason why, although the beach gives its name to only the west part of the beachside community, traces of the name Yuigahama can be found also in Zaimokuza (for example in Moto Hachiman's official name, Yui Wakamiya). The center of Yuigahama came legally into being between 1964 and 1965 and was named after the beach. Today's Yuigahama was until then divided between Zaimokuza, Ōmachi, and Hase.

There are different theories about the origin of the name. According to one it derives from an earlier one, Yuigo (由比郷?). According to another it derives from the presence of a cooperative (yui (結?)). The name Yui itself has been written in various ways, among them 由井 and 湯井.