Kuroda clan
The Kuroda were descended from the Sasaki family although their early history is hazy. They emerged in the Sengoku Period as retainers of the Kodera of Harima province. After 1577 they entered the service of Oda Nobunaga and through the efforts of Kuroda Yoshitaka, a close companion of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, they rose in importance. Yoshitaka and Nagamasa supported Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Sekigahara Campaign and afterwards their family held a considerable fief in Chikuzen province.
References
- Initial text from Sengoku Biographical Dictionary (Samurai-Archives.com) FWSeal & CEWest, 2005