Ibaraki

Ibaraki lies in the low country of central Hitachi, near the waters flowing into Lake Kasumigaura. At Fuchū, the old provincial government stood on a plateau between the Tennō and Koise rivers, near temples and the shrine honouring the deities of Hitachi. In the Edo period a branch of the Matsudaira family held lands in Ibaraki and neighbouring districts. Fuchū developed further as the centre of its small domain.