The Takeda clan of Aki

Aki Province

or Geishū was a province in the Chūgoku Region of western Honshū, comprising the western part of what is today Hiroshima Prefecture.When Emperor Shōmu ordered two official temples for each province , two temples were founded in Aki Province...

was a cadet branch of the famed Takeda clan of Kai Province

Kai Province

, also known as , is an old province in Japan in the area of Yamanashi Prefecture. It lies in central Honshū, west of Tokyo, in a landlocked mountainous region that includes Mount Fuji along its border with Shizuoka Prefecture....

, descended from Emperor Seiwa

Emperor Seiwa

was the 56th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.Seiwa's reign spanned the years from 858 through 876.-Traditional narrative:...

 (850-880) and the Minamoto clan

Minamoto clan

was one of the surnames bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the imperial family who were demoted into the ranks of the nobility. The practice was most prevalent during the Heian Period , although its last occurrence was during the Sengoku Era. The Taira were another such offshoot of...

 (Seiwa Genji).The Takeda of Wakasa were a cadet branch of the Takeda of Aki.

Takeda Nobumitsu (1162-1248), eldest son of Takeda Nobuyoshi

Takeda Nobuyoshi

was a Japanese daimyo of the early Edo period. Born Tokugawa Fukumatsumaru, he was one of Tokugawa Ieyasu's sons. His mother is believed to have been Otoma, the daughter of Takeda clan retainer Akiyama Torayasu. As Ieyasu took pity on the destroyed Takeda clan, he changed his son's name to Takeda...

 (then head of the Takeda clan), assisted at the campaign against Kiso Yoshinaka and against the Taira clan

Taira clan

The was a major Japanese clan of samurai in historical Japan.In reference to Japanese history, along with Minamoto, Taira was a hereditary clan name bestowed by the emperors of the Heian Period to certain ex-members of the imperial family when they became subjects...

. He repressed the revolt of Wada Yoshimori

Wada Yoshimori

was an early Kamakura period military commander. A gokenin of the Kamakura shogunate, he was the first director of the Samurai-dokoro.He was the son of Miura Yoshiaki and grandson of Sugimoto Yoshimune, making him a descendant of the Heike. Among his sons were Wada Yoshinao, Asahina Yoshihide, and...

 (1213). At the time of the Jōkyu war (1221), he helped the Hōjō

Hojo clan

See the late Hōjō clan for the Hōjō clan of the Sengoku Period.The in the history of Japan was a family who controlled the hereditary title of shikken of the Kamakura Shogunate. In practice, the family had actual governmental power, many times dictatorial, rather than Kamakura shoguns, or the...

 and entered Kyōto. In reward he received the title of Shugo

Shugo

was a title, commonly translated as "Governor," given to certain officials in feudal Japan. They were each appointed by the shogun to oversee one or more of the provinces of Japan...

(governor) of Aki province.

Takeda Nobutake (+ 1362) was the last Takeda Shugo of the three provinces of Kai, Aki and Wakasa. His elder son Nobunari received Kai and the younger Ujinobu received Aki and Wakasa provinces.

From the Muromachi period

Muromachi period

The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate, which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi shogun, Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kemmu restoration of imperial...

 until the Sengoku period

Sengoku period

The or Warring States period in Japanese history was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The name "Sengoku" was adopted by Japanese historians in reference...

, the Takeda of Aki ruled both Aki and Wakasa provinces, were supporters of the Ashikaga

Ashikaga clan

The ' was a prominent Japanese samurai clan which established the Muromachi shogunate and ruled Japan from roughly 1336 to 1573.The Ashikaga were descended from a branch of the Minamoto clan, deriving originally from the town of Ashikaga in Shimotsuke province .For about a century the clan was...

 against the Southern Dynasty, and sided with the Hosokawa clan

Hosokawa clan

The ' was a Japanese samurai clan, descended from Emperor Seiwa and a branch of the Minamoto clan, by the Ashikaga clan. It produced many prominent officials in the Ashikaga shogunate's administration. In the Edo period, the Hosokawa clan was one of the largest landholding daimyo families in Japan...

 during the Ōnin war (1467-1477).

Their principal fortress was Kanayama castle, built on the top of the 411 meters of Mount Takeda; a castle built by Takeda Nobumune in the late Kamakura Period

Kamakura period

The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo....

, near the present city of Hiroshima.

However, clashes with Mōri Motonari

Mori Motonari

was a prominent daimyō in the west Chūgoku region of Japan during the Sengoku period of the 16th century.-Early years:Mōri Motonari was born under the name Shojumaru in a small domain of Aki province in 1497. He is said to have been born at Suzuo Castle, his mother's homeland...

 of Aki between 1516 and 1523 led to the clan's downfall. The principal line came to an end with the death of Takeda Nobuzane

Takeda Nobuzane

Takeda Nobuzane was a younger half-brother of Takeda Shingen, a preeminent daimyo who vied for the control of Japan in the late stage of Sengoku, the "warring states" period....

 in 1555.

During the Tokugawa period, the Harada and the Yamaguchi families, Samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

of the Asano clan (Daimyo

Daimyo

is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...

of Hiroshima), descended from the Takeda of Aki. According to the Yamaguchi family, the three most important strongholds that belonged to the Takeda of Aki were Kanayama castle (seen above), Kitsune castle and Ato castle (all in Aki province).