Definitions

Mito

Mito

[mee-toh]
Mito, city (1990 pop. 234,968), capital of Ibaraki prefecture, central Honshu, Japan, on the Naka River. It is chiefly a communications center. It produces electrical machinery, iron and steel products, chemicals, furniture, and handicrafts. From 1606 Mito was the seat of a branch of the Tokugawa family. The city's Tokiwa Park is one of the greatest landscape gardens of Japan.

Japanese han (domain) belonging to one of the three branches of the Tokugawa family from which the shogun was chosen during the Tokugawa period. During the 19th century, nationalists from Mito adopted the slogan “Sonnō jōi” (“Revere the emperor, expel the barbarians”). Tokugawa Nariaki (1800–60), daimyo of Mito at the time of Commodore Matthew Perry's mission to Japan, called for Japan's continued isolation, supported by greater national unity and military renovation. Seealso Ii Naosuke; Meiji Restoration; Yoshida Shōin.

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was a town located in Mino District, Shimane, Japan. On November 1, 2004, Mito merged with the town of Hikimi to form the new city of Masuda.

As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 2,615 and a density of 19.72 persons per km². The total area was 132.64 km².

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