was a Japanese kin group that flourished during the 15th–16th (

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

) and 17th centuries (

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 ...

) of Japan. The clan resided in Western

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

. A Daimyo of the Clan was Shinmen Sokan.

History

The Shinmen were a branch of the Akamatsu clan.Yoshikawa, Eiji. (1995)
''Musashi,'' p. 94
The Shinmen clan were known for employing highly skilled swordsman as their

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 ...

. This long line of skilled swordsmanship within the clan dated back around to the 15th century, when men such as Hirata Shokan were employed. The history of the Shinmen clan following the Edo era is unknown.

History

References

Further reading