Mito (水戸市, Mito-shi) - The capital of
Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan and has a central location,
moderately offset towards the coast in that prefecture. As
of 2005, the city has an estimated population of 263,748 and
a total area is 217.45 km², giving a density of 1,212.91
persons per km². Mito natto is the city's culinary
speciality and is well-known across Japan.
Mito is the site of the Japanese garden Kairaku-en, located
near Senba lake and counted as one of the Three Great
Gardens of Japan. Constructed by Tokugawa Nariaki in 1842,
the park is known nationwide for its breathtaking ume trees.
Many people come to the park in spring to view the
spectacular blossoms, particularly during the Ume Festival.
In summer, Mito also holds the Mito Koumon Festival.
Mito was the seat of the so-called Mito School, a
congregation of nativist scholars of Confucian persuasion
led by Aizawa Seishisai (会沢正志斎), who during the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries advocated Western learning as a
means not only to further Japanese technological development
and international strength, but as means to prove Japanese
uniqueness and superiority among nations.
History
The Yamato people settled in Mito around the fourth century
CE. Around the end of the Heian period, Baba Sukemoto, a
warlord of the Heike family, moved to Mito and built a
castle there. Mito Castle changed hands several times after
that: a daimyo named Satake Yoshinobu won it in the
mid-1500s, but he was forced to surrender it to Tokugawa
Ieyasu in 1603 after the epic Battle of Sekigahara. Ieyasu's
son Tokugawa Yorifusa then took over Mito Castle, becoming
one of the three "gosanke" family members fortified outside
of Edo. Edo was directly connected to Mito by the Mito Kaidō.
The Tokugawas directly ruled Mito until the mid-1800s, when
the bakufu in Edo was overthrown.
The modern city of Mito was formed on April 1, 1889, with a
population of 25,000. It was designated as the prefectural
capital. By 1900, the Joban Line connected it to Tokyo, and
by 1910, telephones and electric lighting were available
throughout the city. Although more than three-quarters of
the city burned to the ground near the end of World War II,
the population rebounded to 70,000 just two years later, and
has continued to grow ever since.
Today, Mito is primarily a commercial and administrative
city: most industry in Ibaraki is concentrated around the
nearby city of Tsukuba. Mito has a modest but thriving
tourism industry, centered on Kairaku-en (park) and local
museums dedicated to the Tokugawa family. Mito is also the
site of Ibaraki University, and is sister city to Anaheim,
California.
Mito will grow further in 2007 as the neighboring town of
Ibaraki will merge with Mito on December 8, 2007. This
merger will raise Mito's population to over 300,000, and
qualify it to a status of core city over its current status
of special city.
Information source: “Mito, Ibaraki.” wikipedia.org. Article
date: 26 Feb. 2008. Retrieved: Wikipedia. 4 Mar. 2008 <Mito, Ibaraki>. |
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