Tawara clan

The Tawara family were vassals of the Ôtomo clan of Bungo province. Prominent in the mid-16th century, they suffered a severe decline in the 1580s. Several of the family's heads or other prominent members were adopted from the Nata family, high priests of Usa Hachiman Shrine, and several intermarried with or were otherwise very close with the Ôtomo family. In the early to mid-16th century, many members of the Tawara family held high positions in the Ôtomo government and armies, including as ministers of religion and generals in the Ôtomo army.

Tawara Chikakata, the adopted son of Tawara Chikamoto, was one notable member of the Tawara family. Adopted from the Nata family of Usa Hachiman, he became a close confidant to Ôtomo Sôrin in the 1540s, when Sôrin was still a teenager. Sôrin then married Chikakata's sister from the Nata family, and Chikakata later adopted two of their sons - Ôtomo Chikaie and Ôtomo Chikamori - as his own. Chikakata's own sons included Tawara Chikatsuna, who created a scandal when he converted to Christianity against the wishes of his father and aunt.

The Tawara played a key role in Ôtomo campaigns of the Sengoku period, including for example the 1578 Battle of Mimigawa, where Tawara Chikakata led Sôrin's armies against the Shimazu clan.

In 1580, however, Tawara Chikahiro and Tawara Chikatsune, along with Takita Shôsetsu and others, led a rebellion against the Ôtomo and were defeated and killed, marking the beginning of a severe decline in power and prominence for the clan.

References

• Haruko Nawata Ward, Women Religious Leaders in Japan's Christian Century, Ashgate (2009), 115-124.