Nanbu clan

The Nanbu kamon.

The Nanbu of northern Mutsu province were descended from the Takeda of Kai. During the Sengoku Period they became powerful in northern Mutsu, competing with the Akita, Tozawa, and others for territory. Nanbu Yasunobu destroyed the Namioka clan in 1523 and under the leadership of his son Harumasa the family expanded their power greatly. They later submitted to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, supported the Tokugawa during the Sekigahara Campaign, and resided at Morioka castle until the end of the Edo Period.

As lords of Morioka han, for most of the Edo period the Nanbu did not enjoy kuni-mochi status, unlike their more powerful and prominent neighbors, the Date clan of Sendai han. However, in 1808, in recognition of the clan's contributions to the defense of Ezo (Hokkaidô) against Russian encroachment, the domain's kokudaka was increased to 200,000 koku, and the Nanbu clan thus gained kuni-mochi ("province-holder") status, though they did not gain any physical territory at this time, and continued to control only a small portion of Mutsu province.

Prior to their ascent to kuni-mochi status, the clan only referred to its domain with the term kuni (country/state) in internal documents, employing humbler terms such as zaisho (residence) or ryôbun (portion of territory) in exchanges with the Tokugawa shogunate. After 1808, however, the clan began to refer to its domain as a kuni in these external (omote) exchanges, a sign of the clan's increased status.

References

• Roberts, Luke. Performing the Great Peace: Political Space and Open Secrets in Tokugawa Japan. University of Hawaii Press, 2012. pp48-49.