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Nitta clan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nitta
新田
The mon of the Nitta clan.
Parent house Minamoto clan
(Seiwa Genji)
TitlesVarious
FounderNitta Yoshishige (Minamoto no Yoshishige)
Final rulerNitta Yoshisada
Founding year12th century
Ruled until1338, death of Nitta Yoshisada
Cadet branchesTokugawa clan
Matsudaira clan
Sakai clan
Wakiya clan
Yamana clan
Serada clan
Horiguchi clan
Iwamatsu clan
Odachi clan

The Nitta clan (新田氏, Nitta-shi) was one of several major families descended from the Seiwa Genji, and numbered among the chief enemies of the Hōjō clan regents, and later the Ashikaga shogunate. The common ancestor of the Nitta, Minamoto no Yoshishige (1135–1202), was the elder brother of Minamoto no Yoshiyasu, the common ancestor of the Ashikaga clan. Yoshishige was a landowner in the Nitta District of Kōzuke Province in present-day Gunma Prefecture. Yoshishige supported Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147–1199) in the Battle of Ishibashiyama of 1180 against the Taira clan.[1]

The Nitta clan rose to importance in the early 13th century; they controlled Kozuke Province, and had little influence in Kamakura, the capital of the Kamakura shogunate, because their ancestor, Minamoto no Yoshishige had not joined his fellow clansmen in the Genpei War a century earlier.

In the 1330s, Nitta Yoshisada led the clan and a number of other Minamoto vassals against the Hōjō clan regents. They succeeded, in June 1333, in destroying the Bakufu's buildings in Kamakura.

The Nitta clan played an important role once again, allying with the Date clan and the Southern Courts, during the Nanboku-cho wars of the late 14th century.

The successive present head of a household

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  1. Nitta Yoshishige
  2. Nitta Yoshikane
  3. Nitta Yoshihusa
  4. Nitta Masayoshi
  5. Nitta Masauji
  6. Nitta Motouji
  7. Nitta Tomouji
  8. Nitta Yoshisada

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Nitta family". Encyclopedia of Japan. Tokyo: Shogakukan. 2012. OCLC 56431036. Archived from the original on 2007-08-25. Retrieved 2012-09-04.