The Edo clan ( Japanese: 江戸氏, ''Edo-shi'') was a Japanese

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

family who first fortified the settlement known as Edo, which would later become

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. The Imperial Palace now stands at this location.Time Out Tokyo edited by Cathy Phillips, page 11 The clan was a branch of the

Taira clan The was one of the four most important Japanese clans, clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian period, Heian period of History of Japan, Japanese history – the others being the Minamoto clan, Minamoto, the Fujiwara clan, Fuji ...

. During the Azuchi–Momoyama period, the clan was renamed the Kitami clan.

History

The clan originated in Chichibu in Musashi Province (now

Saitama Prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (January 1, 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 Square kilometre, km2 ( ...

). In the late 12th century, Edo Shigetsugu moved south and fortified the little hill at Edo, located where the Sumida River enters

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan spanning the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture, on the southern coast of the island of Honshu. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. Th ...

. This area later became the Honmaru and Ninomaru portions of Edo Castle. There, the Edo grew in military strength under the second patriarch,

Edo Shigenaga Edo Shigenaga (江戸重長) was a Japanese samurai lord and '' gokenin'' in the late Heian and early Kamakura period, who was the second head of the Edo clan. He was also known as Edo Taro.''Yoshitsune: a fifteenth-century Japanese chronicle'', B ...

. In August 1180, Shigenaga attacked Muira Yoshizumi, an ally of the rival Minamoto clan. Three months later, he switched sides just as

Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1192 until 1199, also the first ruling shogun in the history of Japan.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako ...

entered Musashi. Shigenaga assisted the Minamoto in overthrowing the

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

. In return, Yoritomo granted Shigenaga seven new estates in Musashi Province, including Kitami in what is now Tokyo's western Setagaya Ward. Records show that in 1457, Edo Shigeyasu surrendered his main base at Edo to Ōta Dōkan. Dokan was a vassal of the powerful Ōgigayatsu branch of the

Uesugi clan The is a Japanese samurai clan which was at its peak one of the most powerful during the Muromachi period, Muromachi and Sengoku periods (14th to 17th centuries).Georges Appert, Appert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 79./ref> At its heigh ...

under Uesugi Sadamasa. Sadamasa was the Kanto-Kanrei for the Ashikaga. Dokan built Edo Castle on the site. The Edo clan then moved to Kitami. In 1593, in a pledge of obedience to

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

, Edo Katsutada changed the clan name to Kitami. Katsutada was employed by the first and second Tokugawa ''shōguns'', reaching the position of Magistrate of Sakai, south of

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

. Katsutada's grandson-in-law, Shigemasa, found favor with the fifth ''shōgun'' Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. He rose from the position of

hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the Shōgun, shogunates in History of Japan, Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred ...

, with a stipend of one thousand koku, to sobayonin, or "Grand Chamberlain", with a stipend of twenty thousand.''The Cambridge History of Japan: Early modern Japan'', John Whitney Hall, page 431 It was an influential post, responsible for relaying messages between the ''shōgun'' and his senior councilors. He was also awarded a large domain in 1686. However, the clan's fortunes suddenly plummeted. In 1689, Shigemasa's nephew violated the shogunate taboo on bloodshed. Shigemasa had to forfeit his status and property and was banished to Ise, where he died in 1693 at age 36. The 500-year-old Edo clan essentially ceased as a recognized clan. Tombstones of several generations of the clan are at Keigen-ji, a Buddhist temple founded in 1186 by Edo Shigenaga, in Kitami.

References

Taira clan Japanese clans {{Japan-hist-stub