Mito Onsen

Mito Onsen serves the capital of Ibaraki Prefecture, a city whose greatest treasure is the Kairakuen Garden — one of Japan's three great classical gardens, planted by Mito lord Tokugawa Nariaki in 1842 with over 3,000 plum trees of more than 100 varieties whose blossoming each February and March draws one of the largest plum blossom festivals in the country, transforming the garden into a fragrant sea of white and pink. Mito was the seat of the Mito Tokugawa domain, one of the three most powerful branches of the Tokugawa family, famous for the intellectual tradition of Mito school historical scholarship and for the legendary Mito Komon — the wandering deputy shogun whose popular story became one of Japan's most beloved and longest-running television dramas. The onsen's mineral-rich spring waters invite guests to soak in the city's geothermal warmth after walking through a garden where three centuries of plum trees bloom in annual testament to the enduring aesthetic legacy of the Tokugawa lords of Mito.