are a historical Japanese clan.

History

They are descended directly from

Emperor Uda was the 59th emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 宇多天皇 (59)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Uda's reign spanned the years from 887 through 897. Traditional narrative Name and legacy Befor ...

(868–897) by his grandson Minamoto no Masazane (920–993) (

Uda Genji The {{nihongo, Uda Genji, 宇多源氏} were the successful and powerful line of the Japanese Minamoto clan that were descended from Emperor Uda (宇多天皇). Overview Many of the famous Minamoto warriors, including Sasaki clan (佐々木� ...

), but were adopted by the

Seiwa Genji The is a line of the Japanese Minamoto clan that is descended from Emperor Seiwa, which is the most successful and powerful line of the clan. Many of the most famous Minamoto members, including Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Minamoto no Yoritomo, ...

. Minamoto no Nariyori, great-grandson of Masazane, is the first who took the name of Sasaki from his domain in

Ōmi province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture. It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō Circuit (subnational entity), circuit. Its nickname is . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, ...

(now Shiga). Hideyoshi (1112–1184), descendant of Minamoto no Nariyori, lost his parents young and became an orphan. He was adopted by Minamoto no Tameyoshi (then head of the Seiwa Genji). He participated in the Hōgen war (1156) in which his father Minamoto no Tameyoshi was killed, and the Heiji war (1159) with his (adoptive) uncles, brothers, nephews, cousins and clansmen. After his brother Minamoto no Yoshitomo was killed (1160), and the defeat of the

, he went North to ask

Fujiwara no Hidehira was the third ruler of Northern Fujiwara in Mutsu Province, Japan, the grandson of Fujiwara no Kiyohira. During the Genpei War, he controlled his territory independently of the central government; however, he was the official imperial governor f ...

of Mutsu province to give him shelter, but stopped at Shibuya (Sagami province) and remained at that place for 20 years. When his nephew

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 ...

rose in revolt against the

Taira The was one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian period of Japanese history – the others being the Minamoto, the Fujiwara, and the Tachibana. The clan is divided into four major groups, named ...

, he with his four sons sided with him (1180). He was killed during the

Genpei war The was a national civil war between the Taira clan, Taira and Minamoto clan, Minamoto clans during the late Heian period of Japan. It resulted in the downfall of the Taira and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto no Yori ...

(1180-1185) at the battle of Ōhara (1184) in Ōmi province fighting against 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 ...

. His descendants received from their Seiwa Genji cousins the title of ''

shugo , commonly translated as ' ilitarygovernor', 'protector', or 'constable', was a title given to certain officials in feudal Japan. They were each appointed by the shogun to oversee one or more of the provinces of Japan. The position gave way to th ...

'' (governor) of Ōmi and other provinces, which they kept until the 16th century

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 ...

wars. He is the ancestor of the Sasaki, the Rokkaku, the Amago, the Kyōgoku and the Kuroda clans. In 1868, at the end of the

Tokugawa 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 Kyōgoku were ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' of Marugame and Tadotsu in Sanuki Province, Toyooka in

Tajima Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of northern Hyōgo Prefecture. Tajima bordered on Tango Province, Tango and Tanba Province, Tanba to the east, Harima Province, Harima to the south, and Inaba Province, Inaba to the west. ...

, and Mineyama Domain in

Tango Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of northern Kyoto Prefecture. Tango bordered on Tanba Province, Tanba to the south, Tajima Province, Tajima to the west, and Wakasa Province, Wakasa to the east. Its abbreviated form name ...

.Iwao, Seiichi ''et al.'' (2002)
''Dictionnaire historique du Japon,'' p. 1704.
/ref> A branch of the Kyōgoku was ranked among the 26 families which were permitted to fill the office of ''

kōke A during the Edo period in Japan generally referred to the position of the "Master of Ceremonies", held by certain -less samurai ranking below a daimyō. Historically, or in a more general context, the term may refer to a family of old lineage a ...

''.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric ''et al.'' (2002)
''Japan Encyclopedia,'' p. 547.
/ref> * The Kuroda were ''daimyō'' of Fukuoka, and of Akizuki (Chikuzen province). * The Rokkaku had the rank of ''Kōke''. There existed a certain Sasaki Shrine where Sasaki Yamagimi, a warlord, worshiped the god of ancestor's spirit. Following the middle of the Heian period (794 - 858), the shrine was used to worship the tutelary god of the Sasaki clan. It is said that through this, the " Ōmi-Genji Festival" is held every year on October 10 in respect of the Sasaki clan. One member of note amongst the Sasaki clan is none other than Sasaki Kojiro, the famous swordsman and rival of

Miyamoto Musashi , was a Japanese swordsman, strategist, artist, and writer who became renowned through stories of his unique double-bladed swordsmanship and undefeated record in his 62 duels. Miyamoto is considered a ''Kensei (honorary title), kensei'' (swo ...

. The favorite technique of Kojiro was his "Tsubame Gaeshi" (Turning Swallow Cut), which he attempted to use on Musashi throughout their duel. It is also known that the Sasaki clan apparently was a political obstacle to that of the Hosokawa, and the defeat of Kojiro would be a political setback to his religious and political foes.

Genealogy

Bold designates a master. The "〇" mark is a person who participated in

's rising in arms. ∴

(867-931) ┃ Prince Atsumi(893-967) ┃ Minamoto no Masazane(920-993) ┃ Sukenori(951-998) ┃ Nariyori(976-1003) ┃ Noritsune(1000-1058) ┃ Tsunekata ┃ Tametoshi ┃ Sasaki Hideyoshi(1112–1184) ┣━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━┳━━━━━┓ 〇 Sadatsuna 〇 Tsunetaka 〇 Moritsuna 〇 Takatsuna Yoshikiyo ┏━━━━━━┳━━━━━┳━━━━━┫ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┣━━━━━┓ Hirotsuna Sadashige Hirosada Nobutsuna Takashige Kaji Nobuzane Shigetuna Masayoshi Yasukiyo ┏━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━┓ ┏━━━━━┳━━━━━┫ Shigetsuna　 Takanobu　 Rokkaku Yasutsuna　 Kyogoku Ujinobu Yoriyasu　 Yoshiyasu　 Muneyasu

History

Genealogy

See also

References

Sources