It reads しょうおうちょう — Shoo Cho. This is one of the harder names in the country: small municipalities are exactly where Japan's nandoku chimei (難読地名, "hard-to-read place names") live.
This place is one of 1,651 in Chimei, our Japan city game. Read the kanji, then pin it on the map.
Play Chimei →Every dot is one of Japan's 1,651 municipalities, plotted at its real coordinates. Shoo is marked in red.
Shōō is a town located in Katsuta District, Okayama Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 September 2022, the town had an estimated population of 10,900 in 4713 households and a population density of 83 persons per km2. The total area of the town is 54.05 square kilometres (20.87 sq mi). Shōō is said to be the place where Kintarō died.
Measured as real great-circle distance from Shoo.
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勝央町 is read しょうおうちょう (Shoo Cho). It is a town in Okayama Prefecture.
町 means "town" and is read chō / machi. A town. 町 is read either chō or machi — which one is local convention, and it varies by region. This is one of the classic traps in Japanese place names.
Shoo has a population of 10,933 across 54 km², making it the 1106th largest of Japan's 1,651 municipalities and the 22nd largest of the 27 in Okayama.
The closest municipalities to Shoo are Mimasaka Shi (5 km), Nagi Cho (10 km), Tsuyama Shi (10 km).