Mito Castle was a 12th-century

Japanese castle are fortresses constructed primarily of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries, and came into their best-known form in the 16th century. Castles in Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, suc ...

with an extensive history, now in ruins, located in what was

Hitachi Province was an old province of Japan in the area of Ibaraki Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Hitachi fudoki''" in . It was sometimes called . Hitachi Province bordered on Shimōsa (Lower Fusa), Shimotsuke, and Mutsu ( Iwase - ...

."Mito Castle" Japanese Castle Explorer http://www.japanese-castle-explorer.com/castle_profile.html?name=Mito The castle ruins are located in the city of Mito,

Ibaraki Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, Tochigi Prefectur ...

, Japan.

History

The castle was originally constructed in 1214 by Baba Sukemoto. This clan continued the rule of the castle, until it was taken in 1416 by Edo Michifusa. It was originally named Baba castle, however after it was taken by the

Edo clan The Edo clan were a minor offshoot of the Taira clan, and first fortified the settlement known as Edo, which would later become Tokyo. The Imperial Palace now stands at this location.Time Out Tokyo edited by Cathy Phillips, page 11 During the Azu ...

, it was expanded and given its present name. During the

Edo Era The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteri ...

the castle was held by the Mito branch of the

Tokugawa clan The is a Japanese dynasty that was formerly a powerful '' daimyō'' family. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and were a branch of the Minamoto clan (Seiwa Genji) through the Matsudaira clan. The early history of this cl ...

, one of the

Gosanke The , also called simply , or even , were the most noble three branches of the Tokugawa clan of Japan: Owari, Kii, and Mito, all of which were descended from clan founder Tokugawa Ieyasu's three youngest sons, Yoshinao, Yorinobu, and Yorifus ...

, three branch families of the Tokugawa that could provide an heir if necessary. The Mito branch was founded by Yorifusa Tokugawa, the 11th son of

Ieyasu Tokugawa was the founder and first '' shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fel ...

, the first Tokugawa shōgun. The proximity of Mito to Edo meant that the Mito branch of the family was influential throughout the Edo era. A large fire destroyed many of the buildings in 1764. The castle was decommissioned, as were many castles in Japan, during the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

."Mito Castle" J Castle Info http://www.jcastle.info/castle/profile/112-Mito-Castle

Current Site

Little of the Castle now remains, except

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

s, one gate and the Kodokan, a school that was located in front of the castle. There are several modern schools located on the castle's former site, which have gates and fences done in the style of a castle.

Literature

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References

{{Authority control Castles in Ibaraki Prefecture Buildings and structures in Japan destroyed during World War II