Tsugaru clan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Tsugaru clan (津軽氏, Tsugaru-shi^?) was a family originating within Mutsu Province by the latter Sengoku period of Feudal Japan. Respectively holding Ōura Castle as their primary domain, the Tsugaru were called the Ōura clan (大浦氏 Ōura-shi), conjectively branching off from the Nanbu clan at the initial time of their birth, and thus giving rise to this name. As the Tsugaru thus remained within Mutsu as retainers beneath the Nanbu, some form of political circumstance encouraged them to defect from the Nanbu as relations between the two clans began to create many rifts throughout the years that passed. The present time being around the 1570s, a man by the name of Tsugaru Tamenobu succeeded to headship over the Tsugaru--the time at which they discarded the name of Ōura--and initially protected his homeland with great success from the Nanbu up until the time at which the latter were forced into submission by means of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

At the time of the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, the Tsugaru intelligently assisted Tokugawa Ieyasu's western forces, afterwards confirming their domains with a greater level of fief, at which they were allowed jurisdictional residence at Hirosaki Castle until the very end of the Edo period. It is assumed that the Tsugaru may have survived throughout the differing circumstances of the Meiji Restoration, but such knowledge remains more or less unimportant.

[edit] References

1. Tsugaru clan - SamuraiWiki. (Samurai Archives) FWSeal & CEWest, 2005