The was a Japanese

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 ...

clan that ruled

Mino province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today southern Gifu Prefecture. Mino was bordered by Ōmi to the west, Echizen and Hida to the north, and Shinano to the east, and Ise, Mikawa, and Owari to the south. Its abbreviat ...

in the

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 ...

. The clan appropriated the name of a defunct samurai clan named "Saitō" that had previously hailed from

Echizen province was a province of Japan in the area that is today the northern portion of Fukui Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Echizen bordered on Kaga, Wakasa, Hida, and Ōmi Provinces. It was part of Hokurikudō Circuit. Its abbreviated for ...

and claimed descent from Fujiwara Toshihito, of the Hokke branch 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 ...

. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)
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/nowiki>.html" ;"title="DF 54 of 80">("Baba"?) ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 50 [PDF 54 of 80
/nowiki>">DF 54 of 80">("Baba"?) ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 50 [PDF 54 of 80
/nowiki> retrieved 2013-4-30.

History

The founder of the Saitō clan was Saitō Dōsan (1494–1556), who started out as a Buddhist monk, and later worked as a peddler selling cooking oil. In the 1520s, Dōsan's father was adopted into the Nagai clan, a minor samurai clan. In 1530, Dōsan murdered the head of the Nagai clan and took control of the clan for himself. In 1541, Dōsan attacked and overthrew the

shugo , commonly translated as “(military) governor,” “protector,” or “constable,” was a title given to certain officials in feudal Japan. They were each appointed by the ''shōgun'' to oversee one or more of the provinces of Japan. The pos ...

Toki Yorinari , also known as Toki Yoriaki,
retrieved 2013-5-10. was a Japanese daimyō 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 nominall ...

of Mino. For his ruthlessness, Dōsan was nicknamed . Dosan was eventually defeated in 1549 by Oda Nobuhide. Nobuhide made peace with Dōsan by arranging a political marriage between his son and heir,

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

, and Dōsan's daughter, Nōhime. Dōsan, therefore, became the father-in-law of Oda Nobunaga. Rumors had started to circulate that Dōsan's firstborn son, Saitō Yoshitatsu, was not his natural son and Dōsan started to consider another son, Kiheiji, or even his son-in-law Oda Nobunaga, as his heirs. This caused Yoshitatsu to rebel and kill his two younger brothers. In 1556, the forces of Dōsan and Yoshitatsu clashed in the Battle of Nagara-gawa which resulted in the death of Dōsan. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)
"Saitō Dōsan"
in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 809. Saitō Tatsuoki was the son of Yoshitatsu. Tatsuoki was defeated by

in 1567, and the clan was extinguished.

References

External links

斎藤氏 on Harimaya.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saito clan Japanese clans