The Kyôgoku were descended from Sasaki Ujinobu, one of whose descendants settled at Kyôgoku Castle in Ômi province and assumed its name. They were shaken by the rebellion of the Asai clan in the early Sengoku period, an event that brought them into conflict with the Asakura clan of Echizen province as well.
The Kyôgoku came into possession of Ôtsu castle, but lost it in 1600 to Tachibana Muneshige (see Siege of Ôtsu). Following the battle of Sekigahara, Kyôgoku Takatsugu was then given Obama han as its fief, with an income of 85,000 koku. The clan stayed there only two generations, moving to Matsue han and then Marugame han. Meanwhile, another branch of the family, descended from Takatsugu's brother Takatomo, controlled the han of Tanabe, Miyazu, Mineyama, and Toyooka.
| Members of the Kyôgoku clan | |
References
- Initial text from Samurai-Archives.com FWSeal & CEWest, 2005
- Sansom, George (1963). "A History of Japan: 1615-1867." Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
- Turnbull, Stephen (1998). 'The Samurai Sourcebook'. London: Cassell & Co.