The Koyanagawa clan (小梁川氏, ''Koyanagawa-shi'') was a
samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
family in Japan descending from the
Date clan, a
daimyo
were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally ...
(
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...
lord
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ar ...
) family in
Mutsu Province
was an old province of Japan in the area of Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori Prefectures and the municipalities of Kazuno and Kosaka in Akita Prefecture.
Mutsu Province is also known as or . The term is often used to refer to the comb ...
.
History
The third son of
Date Mochimune, the 11th head of the Date clan,
Date Morimune (1440 - November 19, 1500), took the name Koyanagawa from Koyanagawa, Date-gun, Mutsu Province.
According to ''Date Seishin Kafu'', Morimune gathered the Date clan
vassals
A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. W ...
and led all the officials during the time when the 13th clan head, Morimune's nephew, Date Naomune, was aged from 3 to 15 (1455-1467).
However, this is considered impossible because not only the elder brother and 12th clan head, Date Narimune, but also Date Mochimune (died in 1469) were still alive at this time.
In 1591, Date Masamune moved to Iwadeyama due to the Kasai Ōsaki Rebel, when the old territories of Nagai and Date were seized. At this time, Morimune also moved to Esashi-gun. During the
Edo period
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 characteriz ...
, the Koyagawa clan further moved to Notezaki within the same province, and after that, the clan ruled the area until the
Meiji Restoration
The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...
.
Genealogy
The Koyanagawa clan descends from Fujiwara no Yamakage's line of the
Fujiwara clan
was a powerful family of imperial regents in Japan, descending from the Nakatomi clan and, as legend held, through them their ancestral god Ame-no-Koyane. The Fujiwara prospered since the ancient times and dominated the imperial court until th ...
's
Hokke house through the Date clan. The patriarch of the Koyanagawa clan, Koyanagawa Morimune, was the third son of Date Mochimune, the 11th head of the Date clan.
Clan heads
# Koyanagawa Morimune
# Koyanagawa Chikatomo
# Koyanagawa Chikamune
# Koyanagawa Morimune
# Koyanagawa Muneshige
# Koyanagawa Munekage
# Koyanagawa Muneyoshi
# Koyanagawa Munehide
# Date Muraoki
# Koyanagawa Munenaga
# Koyanagawa Muneshige
# Koyanagawa Moriaki
# Koyanagawa Morisane
# Koyanagawa Moriaki
# Koyanagawa Yasumori
# Koyanagawa Moriyuki (later Date Kunimori)
See also
*
Date clan
References
{{authority control
Japanese clans
Date clan