Mito City 水戸市

With a population of approximately 270,000, Mito is the capital of Ibaraki Prefecture, located northeast of Tôkyô. In the western part of Mito is Kairaku-en, a landscape garden laid out in the mid-17th century. At the beginning of the Edo period, Mito became the seat of a branch of the ruling Tokugawa family. Like Wakayama and Nagoya, Mito was one of the ‘three illustrious houses’ (gosanke) that enjoyed the highest privileges from the shogunate in Edo, including succession to the shogunate. The Art Tower Mito is part of the municipal art museum. Another art museum is the Museum of Modern Art Ibaraki, which houses Japanese and Western art from the 19th and 20th centuries.