Pureauthor said:
So much speculation that Isshu would no longer be a Japan region analogue.
The speculation that I had heard most frequently was that this would be based off of the
Chūgoku region.
ivysaur12 said:
Is that a church? To the east of Hiun, over the bridge in the clearing?
Also, has anyone identified where in Japan Isshu is based off of yet?
My guess is the Chūgoku region, but I'm not sure if it fits, geographically speaking.
Given that assumption, it seems to me that Hiun City is Hiroshima. As Forkball mentioned, the desert region would seem to be the
Tottori Sand Dunes--the only sand dunes in Japan; however, they are separated from Hiroshima by the
Chūgoku mountain range, which makes things a little sticky in terms of matching up with this map geographically. I am tempted to say that they merely pieced together aspects of the general Chūgoku region.
Hiun City =
Hiroshima
Central Park =
Kōraku-en
Desert Area =
Tottori Sand Dunes
Mountain Range =
Chūgoku Mountains
Sky Arrow Bridge =
Great Seto Bridge(?)
Church(?) =
St. Francis Xavier Church(?) in
Yamaguchi City (of Yamaguchi Prefecture)--same region(!)
The mountain range on the left and the sand dunes on the right would set the region as the northern half of Chūgoku (a.k.a. the
San'in region). Hiun City as Hiroshima would set the region as the southern half (a.k.a. the
San'yō region). The desert as the Tottori sand dunes would be odd, however, as they meet with the Sea of Japan, which would place them further north of Tottori itself. Thus, the map should look something like:
River (Sendai River) -> Mountains (Chūgoku Range) -> City (Tottori) -> Desert (Tottori Sand Dunes) -> Ocean (Sea of Japan)
I'm anxious to piece this together, though!
Fake Edit: Sorry that this took so long to post--I got distracted. =/ A lot of this is just rehashed speculation at this point, but I thought I might go ahead and post it anyhow.
Real Edit: It could be an amalgam of Honshū-Shikoku, especially given the number of bridges in the region. I'll give it some more thought!