The are a

Japanese clan This is a list of Japanese clans. The old clans (''gōzoku'') mentioned in the ''Nihon Shoki'' and ''Kojiki'' lost their political power before the Heian period, during which new aristocracies and families, ''kuge'', emerged in their place. After ...

of ''

gōzoku , in Japanese, refers to powerful regional families. In historical context, it can refer to powerful non-royal families regardless of their area of influence, in contrast to the Imperial Family. The most powerful ''gōzoku'' families of the Yam ...

'' that claimed descent from the

Fujiwara clan The 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 ancient times and dominated the imperial court until th ...

through Fujiwara Korekimi (727–789) and

Kudō Ietsugu Kudo or KUDO may refer to: * KOAN (AM), a radio station (1080 AM) in Anchorage, Alaska, United States, which held the call sign KUDO from 2002 to 2013 * Kūdō, a martial art and a combat sport, also called daido juku People Kudō (工藤; Kudo ...

. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)
"Itō" at ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 17 [PDF 21 of 80
/nowiki>">DF 21 of 80">"Itō" at ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 17 [PDF 21 of 80
/nowiki> retrieved 2013-4-30. Itō Suketoki (the son of Kudō Suketsune), was famous for his involvement in the incident involving the Soga Monogatari, Soga brothers."Itō-shi" on Harimaya.com
Thomas Cogan, Introduction to ''The Tale of the Soga Brothers'', xiv. The family became a moderate power both in influence and ability by the latter

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

Feudal Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to the Paleolithic, around 38–39,000 years ago. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC whe ...

History

After the death of Sukeie in 1181, Sukechika inherited the Kawazu Manor in

Izu Province was a province of Japan in the area now part of Shizuoka Prefecture and Tokyo. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Izu''" in . Izu bordered on Sagami and Suruga Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . The mainland portion of Izu Prov ...

. When his uncle Suketsugu neared death, he made Sukechika the guardian of his son Suketsune, who became the head of the Itō Manor in Izu. In the

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

and the

, * Yoshisuke, who was the descendant of Suketsune, inherited Agata Domain in

Hyūga Province was a province of Japan in the area of southeastern Kyūshū, corresponding to modern Miyazaki Prefecture Hyūga bordered on Ōsumi to the south, Higo to the west, and Bungo to the north. Its abbreviated form name was , although it was als ...

in 1584 * Suketaka (1541–1600), who was the son of Yoshisuke, supported

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

after the death of

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...

; and he was granted land in

Kawachi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the eastern part of modern Osaka Prefecture. It originally held the southwestern area that was split off into Izumi Province. It was also known as . Geography The area was radically different in th ...

. After the Kyushu Campaign in 1587, the lands were merged into Hyuga Province and Obi Domain (50,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

'') * Sukeyoshi (1588–1636), who was the son of Suketaka, fought at the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was an important battle in Japan which occurred on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, ...

. His descendants remaining at Obi until the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

. * A cadet branch of the clan were heads of Okada Domain (10,000 ''koku'') in

Bitchū Province was a province of Japan on the Inland Sea side of western Honshū, in what is today western Okayama Prefecture. It was sometimes called , with Bizen and Bingo Provinces; those three provinces were settled in the late 7th Century, dividing form ...

from 1615 until 1868 The Itō family's most serious rivals in this period were the Shimazu."Itō-shi" on Harimaya.com
/ref> The Shimazu clan, which had unified

Satsuma Province was an old province of Japan that is now the western half of Kagoshima Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Satsuma" in . Its abbreviation was . History Satsuma's provincial capital was Satsumasendai. Dur ...

and

Ōsumi Province was a province of Japan in the area of southeastern Kyūshū, corresponding to the eastern half of modern Kagoshima Prefecture, and including the Ōsumi Islands . Ōsumi bordered on Hyūga to the northeast, and Satsuma Province to the nor ...

under their control, began to clash with the Itō in 1570. The Itō were finally defeated by the Shimazu in 1578. Yoshisuke, the family head, went to Kyoto by way of

Iyo Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of northwestern Shikoku.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Iyo bordered on Sanuki Province to the northeast, Awa Province (Tokushima), Awa to the east ...

, and sought help from

. The family's old lands were restored in 1587, following

's invasion of Kyushu and defeat of the

Shimazu clan The were the ''daimyō'' of the Satsuma han, which spread over Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga provinces in Japan. The Shimazu were identified as one of the '' tozama'' or outsider ''daimyō'' familiesAppert, Georges ''et al.'' (1888). in contr ...

. By the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, the Itō retained their holdings, which came to be known as the Obi Domain. Count

Itō Sukeyuki Marshal-Admiral Count (20 May 1843 – 16 January 1914) was a Japanese career officer and admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy in Meiji-period Japan. Biography Born in what is now part of Kagoshima City as the son of a ''samurai'' of the ...

, the

Meiji era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...

admiral, was a descendant of this family.

References

External links

"Obi" at Edo 300
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ito Clan Japanese clans