Editing Ibaraki Prefecture (section)

==History==
{{See also|Historic Sites of Ibaraki Prefecture}}
{{Expand section|date=June 2008}}

Ibaraki Prefecture was previously known as [[Hitachi Province]]. In 1871, the name of the province became Ibaraki, and in 1875 it became its current size, by annexing some districts belonging to the extinct [[Shimōsa Province]].
[[File:KamitakatsuKaizuka.jpg|thumb|right|[[Kamitakatsu Shell Mound]] in [[Tsuchiura]]]]

===Paleolithic===
In the [[Japanese Paleolithic]], humans are believed to have started living in the present-day prefecture area before and after the deposition of the volcanic ash layer from the [[Aira Caldera]] about 24,000 years ago. At the bottom of this layer are local tools of polished stone and burnt pebbles.

===Asuka period===
During the [[Asuka period]] the provinces of Hitachi and [[Fusa Province|Fusa]] were created. Later Fusa was divided, among them, the Shimōsa Province.

===Muromachi period===
At the beginning of the [[Muromachi period]], in the 14th century, [[Kitabatake Chikafusa]] made of the [[Oda Castle]] his field headquarters for over a year, and wrote the [[Jinnō Shōtōki]] (Chronicles of the Authentic Lineages of the Divine Emperors), while he was at castle.
[[File:Ushibori in the Hitachi province.jpg|thumb|right|Lake Kasumigaura in Ushibori Village (Hitachi Province), [[Mount Fuji]] in the background; 19th century of the Edo period. [[Hokusai]], painter and printmaker]]

===Edo period===
During the [[Edo period]], one of the three houses or clans originating from [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] (Gosanke 御 三家, three houses), settled in the [[Mito Domain]], the clan is known as the [[Mito Tokugawa family]] or simply the Mito clan. Mito Domain, was a Japanese domain of the Edo-period [[Hitachi Province]].

In 1657, a ''[[Mitogaku]]'' was created when [[Tokugawa Mitsukuni]], head of the Mito Domain, commissioned the compilation of the ''[[Dai Nihonshi]]'', a book on the history of Japan.

=== Meiji period===
In [[Meiji (era)|Meiji era]], during the [[Meiji Restoration]], the political map changes, the old provinces are converted or merged, to create the current prefectures, in this case the Ibaraki Prefecture.