Mito (水戸市, Mito-shi?) is the capital A capital is the area of a country, province, region, or state, regarded as enjoying primary status; although there are exceptions, a capital is almost always a city which physically encompasses the offices and meeting places of the seat of government and fixed by law. Alternate terms include capital city and political capital; the latter phrase of Ibaraki Prefecture Ibaraki Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region on Honshū island. The capital is Mito, Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters which make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which and has a central location, moderately offset towards the coast in that prefecture. As of 2005, the city has an estimated population In biology, a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species; in sociology, a collection of human beings. Individuals within a population share a factor may be reduced by statistical means, but such a generalization may be too vague to imply anything. Demography is used extensively in marketing, which relates to of 263,748 and a total area is 217.45 km², giving a density Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans. It is a key term used in geography of 1,212.91 persons per km². Mito natto Nattō is a traditional Japanese food made from fermented soybeans, popular especially for breakfast. As a rich source of protein, nattō and the soybean paste miso formed a vital source of nutrition in feudal Japan. For some, nattō can be an acquired taste due to its powerful smell, strong flavor, and sticky consistency. In Japan nattō is most is the city's culinary speciality and is well-known across Japan.
Mito is the site of the Japanese garden Japanese gardens , that is, gardens in traditional Japanese style, can be found at private homes, in neighborhood or city parks, and at historical landmarks such as Buddhist temples and old castles Kairaku-en, located near Senba lake A lake is a terrain feature (or physical feature), a body of liquid on the surface of a world that is localized to the bottom of basin (another type of landform or terrain feature; that is, it is not global) and moves slowly if it moves at all. On Earth, a body of water is considered a lake when it is inland, not part of the ocean, is larger and 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 Prunus mume, commonly known as ume or Japanese apricot, or Chinese plum is a species of Asian plum in the family Rosaceae. The flower, long a beloved subject in the traditional painting of East Asia and Vietnam, is usually translated as plum blossom 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 Tokugawa Mitsukuni was a prominent daimyo who was known for his influence in the politics of the early Edo period. He was the third son of Tokugawa Yorifusa (who in turn was the eleventh son of Tokugawa Ieyasu) and succeeded him, becoming the second daimyo of the Mito domain Festival.
Mito was the seat of the so-called Mito School, a congregation of nativist scholars of Confucian Cultures and countries strongly influenced by Confucianism include China , Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam, as well as various territories settled predominantly by Chinese people, such as Singapore. The basic teachings of Confucianism stress the importance of education for moral development of the individual so that the state can be governed by persuasion led by Aizawa Seishisai Aizawa Seishisai (1781-1863), born Aizawa Yasushi (会沢安?), was a Japanese nationalist thinker of the Mito school during the late shogunate period (会沢正志斎), who during the eigthteenth 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.
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History
The Yamato people settled in Mito around the fourth century CE. Around the end of the Heian period The Heian period is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyoto. It is the period in Japanese history when Confucianism and other Chinese influences were at their height. The Heian period is also considered the peak of the Japanese imperial, Baba Sukemoto, a warlord of the Heike In reference to Japanese history, along with Minamoto, Taira was a hereditary clan name bestowed by the emperors of the Heian Period to certain ex-members of the imperial family when they became subjects. The Taira clan is often referred to as Heishi or Heike (平家, literally House of Taira ), using the character's Chinese reading hei family, moved to Mito and built a castle there. Mito Castle changed hands several times after that: a daimyo Daimyo ( daimyō (help·info)) is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in premodern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings. In the term, "dai" literally means "large," and "myō" stands for myōden (名田), meaning private land named Satake Yoshinobu won it in the mid-1500s, but he was forced to surrender it to Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but remained in power until his death in 1616. His given name is sometimes 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 , literally: bay-door, "estuary", pronounced [edo]), also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868. During this period it grew to become one of the largest cities in the world and the site of a vibrant urban. Edo was directly connected to Mito by the Mito Kaidō.[1] The Tokugawas directly ruled Mito until the mid-1800s, when the bakufu Shogun listen (help·info) ("Commander of the Forces") is a military rank and historical title for Hereditary Commanders in Chief of the Armed Forces of Japan. The modern rank is equivalent to a Generalissimo. As a title, it is the short form of seii taishōgun (征夷大将軍?), the governing individual at various times in the history in Edo was overthrown.
The modern city of Mito was formed on April 1 April 1 is the 91st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 274 days remaining until the end of the year. April 1 is most notable in the Western world for being April Fools' Day, 1889 Year 1889 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar), 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 World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all of the great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. The war involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history, 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 Tsukuba is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. It is known as the location of the Tsukuba Science City (筑波研究学園都市, Tsukuba Kenkyū Gakuen Toshi?), a planned city developed in the 1960s. Mito has a modest but thriving tourism Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity industry, centered on Kairaku-en (park) and local museums dedicated to the Tokugawa family. Mito is also the site of Ibaraki University and Tokiwa University, and is sister city to Anaheim, California Anaheim is a city in Orange County, California. As of January 1, 2009, the city population was about 348,467, making it the 10th most-populated city in California and ranked 54th in the United States. The city anticipates that the population will surpass 400,000 by 2014 due to rapid development in its Platinum Triangle area as well as in Anaheim.
Transportation
The Mito Art TowerMito is located on the Joban Line (Mito Station) and Joban Expressway, which connect it to Tokyo Tokyo , officially Tokyo Metropolis (東京都, Tōkyō-to?), is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and is located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the city of Tokyo in the eastern part of the prefecture, totalling over 8 million people and Tsukuba to the south and Hitachi and Iwaki to the north. The Suigun Line runs north to Koriyama, and the Mito Line runs west to Oyama Oyama is a city located in Tochigi, Japan. The closest major airport is Narita International Airport Narita International Airport (IATA: NRT, ICAO: RJAA) is an international airport located in Narita, Chiba, Japan, in the eastern portion of the Greater Tokyo Area. It is located 60 kilometers from downtown Tokyo. An airport offering domestic service will be completed at Hyakuri Airfield in nearby Omitama in 2009.
Professional Sports
Mito is the home city of the J-League professional soccer It is a football variant played on a rectangular grass or artificial turf field, with a goal in the centre of each of the short ends. The object of the game is to score by manoeuvring the ball into the opposing goal. In general play, the goalkeepers are the only players allowed to use their hands or arms to propel the ball; the rest of the team team, Mito HollyHock.
Famous residents
- Aizawa Seishisai Aizawa Seishisai (1781-1863), born Aizawa Yasushi (会沢安?), was a Japanese nationalist thinker of the Mito school during the late shogunate period (1782-1863)
- Stomu Takeishi (b. 1964, jazz bass player)
Tourist Attractions
- Kodokan School
- Mito Castle
- Lake Senba
- Kairakuen Park
- Ibaraki Museum of Modern Art
- Art Tower Mito
- Ibaraki Prefectural Museum of History
- Mito Municipal Botanical Park
- The Tokugawa Museum
External links
- Mito official website in English
- Mito official website in Japanese
- Seifu-Meitokukai Foundation: The Tokugawa Museum
- Mito, Ibaraki travel guide from Wikitravel Wikitravel is a Web-based project "to create a free, complete, up-to-date, and reliable worldwide travel guide." Launched in July 2003 by Evan Prodromou and Michele Ann Jenkins, the Web site is based upon the wiki model, using the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license. In 2006, Internet Brands bought the trademark and servers
References
- ^ Chiba Kokaidō Rekishi Sanpo. Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Accessed December 28, 2007.
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Categories: Mito, Ibaraki | Cities in Ibaraki Prefecture
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