Edo history in Ibaraki

Route 6, also known as the Mito Highway, has historically been a very important road. During the Edo Period, the road, then a vital artery linking the Shōgunate in Edo to the Tokugawa feudal lord in Mito, was used heavily to carry government officials, travelers, and supplies between the two cities. In order to facilitate the transport of travelers and their baggage, a station was established at each post town along the way, where a contingent of 25 men and 25 horses was kept ready. Along with their tax obligations (paid in rice, etc.), the farmer class was obliged to assist in carrying the travelers' luggage. The able-bodied male farmers performed these duties; only the elderly, women, and children were exempt. Therefore, even as the farmers were busy with trying to plant rice and harvest it during the farming seasons, they also had the additional responsibility of assisting with transport along the Mito Highway.

During this period, what with a string of natural disasters such as earthquakes and disease, the farming population experienced a decrease. Along with that decrease, agricultural production dropped, affecting both rich and poor alike, prompting a great deal of dissatisfaction and demands to the ruling lord by the farmers. Among their demands were reduction in annual taxes, complaints about the corruption of government officials, and alleviation of their hard labor, and they began to threaten revolt. Though officially forbidden to do so, the farmers began to hold meetings in secret, and began to petition their friends and colleagues for assistance in their struggle. Ultimately, however, they failed to adopt and formal resolutions, and instead took the more violent route of destroying the homes of the government officials at each post town. Of course, the leaders of such groups were sentenced to death, and more often than not, their families were also harshly punished. Other farmers continued their actions at the risk of their lives, not only in Ibaraki Prefecture, but throughout all of Japan.

Surprisingly enough, recycling was a thriving activity during the Edo Period. Various shops, such as second-hand clothing stores, prospered during this time. Empty sake casks were used to store soy sauce, and when they finally reached the end of their usefulness, were used as firewood. Some official documents and letters which had already been read were used as bottom liners in the manufacture of fusuma (Japanese-style sliding doors), while others were washed in water and converted into washi (Japanese-style paper). The recycled documents were mixed with fibers from the kozo (paper mulberry) tree, mitsumata (paper bush), and ganpi (paper grass) to make a very durable washi. When the paper was well-rubbed and dyed with persimmon tannin, it could be used to make half-coats and raincoats. There was even a type of thread made of washi, used to make a paper cloth known as shifu. This cloth was regularly used throughout the Edo Period.

There were several rules and regulations governing a citizen's private life in the Edo Period. A series of restrictions on personal freedoms were even written in town ordinances. For example, when a local lord passed away, a period of mourning for three to seven days was expected, and during that time no loud noises (such as those from festivals or construction work) could be made. Also during such a time, no one was allowed to wear silk kimonos, large crowds could not assemble, and celebrations, if any were conducted, were kept simple and plain. However, though historians have seen similar ordinances written down in several documents of this period, they suspect that for the largest part, these rules weren't strictly enforced.

In 1824, a group of foreigners suddenly made landfall at Ōtsuhama (in present-day Kitaibaraki-shi). When this happened, a military force was dispatched from Edo, along with several government officials and translators. The foreigners, crewmembers of a whaling vessel, were forced to land on Japan's coast so they could replenish their dwindling food supplies. Even though the country was officially closed to the outside world during this period, it is said that the Shōgunate, in order to avoid violence, illegally permitted the landing and gave the sailors the food they required. However, the following year, the Shōgunate officially endorsed a doctrine of shooting at and driving away any foreign vessels which approached too closely to the Japanese coast.