Nanbu clan
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The Nanbu clan (南部氏 Nanbu-shi?) is a Japanese clan which rose to power in the Sengoku Era. Being of direct descent from the famed Takeda clan of Kai province, the Nanbu were thereby also descended from the Seiwa Genji branch of the Minamoto clan. Growing great aspirations to expand their territory as resolution to their evidential ties, the Nanbu competed against other clans within the northern region of Mutsu: the Akitsu clan, for the sake of seizing Tsugaru District, Aomori, and the clan of Tozawa -- who presently resided in a district that closely neighbored the former's.
Nanbu Yasunobu, the leading head of the Nanbu throughout the clan's beginning rise to a mediocre level of authority, tore apart the Namioka clan by the year 1523, and paved a pathway of consecutive victories that allowed his son, Harumasa, to establish himself firmly as a leader among others upon his succession to headship. As the clan kept presently growing in power after the period in time at which Harumasa was head, the Nanbu were forced to comply to the immense power of Toyotomi Hideyoshi by the time of 1590, and followed by serving under Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara when Ieyasu had allowed them a level of prestige in prospect to their mutual assistance. The Nanbu clan was confirmed in its lordship of the Morioka Domain following the Tokugawa victory at Sekigahara. The family remained here for the entirety of the Edo Period, surviving until the Meiji Restoration. In the Meiji era, they were created counts (hakushaku) in the new kazoku nobility system.
The present chief priest of Yasukuni Shrine, Toshiaki Nanbu, is the current head of the Nanbu family.
[edit] References
- Nanbu clan - SamuraiWiki
- "Japan Focus" article on Yasukuni Shrine (accessed 13 Dec. 2007)
