The Masuda clan was one of Kunishū (国衆) in the

Iwami Province was an old province of Japan in the area that is today the western part of Shimane Prefecture. It was sometimes called . Iwami bordered Aki, Bingo, Izumo, Nagato, and Suō provinces. In the Heian period (794–1192) the capital was at modern ...

(present-day

Shimane Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Shimane Prefecture is the second-least populous prefecture of Japan at 665,205 (February 1, 2021) and has a geographic area of 6,708.26 km2. Shimane Prefecture borders Yamaguc ...

), Japan, from the 13th century until 1600. In the Middle Ages, ''Kunishū'' was the title given to a local lord or a leader of warriors (

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 ...

History

Fujiwara Kunikane started his new post as Iwami provincial governor in the 11th century, the end of the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

. At that time, the Lwami government was in the city of

Hamada A hamada ( ar, حمادة, ) is a type of desert landscape consisting of high, largely barren, hard rocky plateaus, where most of the sand has been removed by deflation. The majority of the Sahara is in fact hamada. Other examples are Negev dese ...

. However, the Fourth Lord MASUDA, Kanetaka (兼高) moved their base to the

Masuda is a city located in Shimane Prefecture, Japan. The city was founded on August 1, 1952. As of December 2021, the city has a population of 44,976. As of December 2019, the city has a population of 46,209. As of March 2017, the city has a popula ...

, a strategic point for the traffic and a suitable place for a port. He also changed his family name from Fujiwara to Masuda, the name of this area. Kanetaka Masuda decided to belong to the new power Genji. He became a commander of the Genji military and fought against the Heike. His army belonged to

Minamoto no Yoshitsune was a military commander of the Minamoto clan of Japan in the late Heian and early Kamakura periods. During the Genpei War, he led a series of battles which toppled the Ise-Heishi branch of the Taira clan, helping his half-brother Yoritomo conso ...

and served in the

Battle of Ichi-no-Tani was a Taira defensive position at Suma-ku, Kobe, Suma, to the west of present-day Kobe, Japan. It sat on a very narrow strip of shore, between mountains on the north, and the sea to the south. This made it quite defensible, but also made it d ...

(1184) and the

Battle of Dan-no-ura The was a major sea battle of the Genpei War, occurring at Dan-no-ura, in the Shimonoseki Strait off the southern tip of Honshū. On April 25, 1185 (or March 24, 1185 by the official page of Shimonoseki City), the fleet of the Minamoto clan ...

(1185), in which Heike was annihilated. Meanwhile, Kanetaka Masuda saved power steadily and ruled about a one-third of Iwami in the early days of the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

. The 11th Lord Masuda, Kaneharu (兼晴), was allied with the powerful

Ōuchi clan was one of the most powerful and important families in Western Japan during the reign of the Ashikaga shogunate in the 12th to 14th centuries. Their domains, ruled from the castle town of Yamaguchi, comprised six provinces at their height, and ...

in Yamaguchi. The 15th Lord Masuda, Kanetsu (兼堯), was involved in many battles, including the

Ōnin War The , also known as the Upheaval of Ōnin and Ōnin-Bunmei war, was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. ''Ōnin'' refers to the Japanese era during which the war started; the war ended during the Bunmei ...

(1467). However, he was also involved with culture. He invited the artist

Sesshū Tōyō (c. 1420 – 26 August 1506) has been regarded as one of the greatest painters in Japanese history. Sesshū was a Zen-Shu priest painter of the Muromachi period in Japan, prominently recognised for his art of sumi-e (black ink painting). Initi ...

to Masuda, and it is said that Sesshū drew his "Portrait of Kanetsu (益田兼堯像)" out of gratitude for Kanetsu's hospitality. In those days, there were many small battles between clans, and warriors were not separated. Everybody was armored and protected their land. Masuda was opposed to neighboring powers, such as the Mori clan, the Yoshimi clan, and the

Amago clan Amago (尼子) is a Japanese word meaning "child of a nun", and has various other uses: People * Amago clan, a Japanese daimyō clan * Amago Haruhisa (1514–1561), Japanese daimyō * Amago Katsuhisa (1553–1578), Japanese daimyō * Amago Kunih ...

. Meanwhile, the Mori family was becoming more powerful and the Ouchi clan less so. The Masuda clan allied itself with the Mori clan. The 19th lord of Masuda, Fujikane (藤兼), made peace with the Mori clan. It is left in the Masuda’s document that he gave various kinds of gift to the Mori clan. It was written in the Korean book that Masuda had trade with other countries. The Masuda clan got an important post from

Mōri Motonari was a prominent ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) in the western Chūgoku region of Japan during the Sengoku period of the 16th century. The Mōri clan claimed descent from Ōe no Hiromoto (大江広元), an adviser to Minamoto no Yoritomo. Motonari w ...

, and the 20th lord of Masuda, Motoyoshi (元祥), was given a character "Moto" (元), from Motonari (元就),　to his name. Motoyoshi widened his territory from

Nagato Province , often called , was a province of Japan. It was at the extreme western end of Honshū, in the area that is today Yamaguchi Prefecture. Nagato bordered on Iwami and Suō Provinces. History Although the ancient capital of the province was Shimono ...

in present-day

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). Y ...

Izumo Province was an old province of Japan which today consists of the eastern part of Shimane Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province is in the Chūgoku region. History During the early Kofun period (3rd century) this region was independent an ...

in present-day

, and a part of

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

. At the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu prefecture, Japan, at the end of ...

(1600), the Mori and Masuda clans belonged to the

Toyotomi The was a Japanese clan that ruled over the Japanese people, Japanese before the Edo period. Unity and conflict The most influential figure within the Toyotomi was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the three "unifiers of Japan". Oda Nobunaga was a ...

group, but he did not send his army to the battle. Although he was allowed to keep his territory by

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

, the Shogun of

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

period, he chose to follow the Mori clan and left Masuda, as the Mori clan was bottled up into a small area, Susa in Nagato. Masuda city had been a Nanao castle town for 400 years under Masuda administration. History of Shimane Prefecture Japanese clans