The Murakami of Shinano province were descended from Minamoto Yorinobu (948-1048), whose great-great grandson Tamekuni adopted the name Murakami. They supported the Minamoto cause in the Gempei War (1180-85) and, later, the Southern Court in the Nambochuko Period. During the first half of the sengoku period the Murakami were a powerful daimyô family in Shinano province. They became involved in a long war with the Takeda and had by 1553 been driven from their lands. They took up in Echigo province with the Uesugi and remained with that family into the Edo Period.