What to know
Mito (水戸) is the capital city of Ibaraki Prefecture. Today it is best known for fermented soybeans (natto) and for being home to Kairakuen Garden, one of Japan's three finest landscape gardens.
Mito rose to prominence during the Edo Period (1603–1868), when Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, chose the city as the base for one of his three most important family branches, alongside Wakayama and Nagoya. This made Mito a major power base with significant influence on the politics and intellectual history of the era.
