Sasaki clan(Tá 々 mộc thị,Sasaki-shi)are a historical Japanese clan.

Sasaki clan
Tá 々 mộc thị
The emblem (mon) of the Sasaki clan
Home provinceŌmi province
Parent houseUda Genji
Seiwa Genji
TitlesVarious
FounderMinamoto no Nariyori
Founding year10th century
Ruled until1871
Cadet branchesRokkaku clan
Amago clan
Kyōgoku clan
Kuroda clan
Takashima clan

History

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They are descended directly fromEmperor Uda(868–897) by his grandsonMinamoto no Masazane(920–993) (Uda Genji), but were adopted by theSeiwa Genji.Minamoto no Nariyori, great-grandson of Masazane, is the first who took the name of Sasaki from his domain inŌmi province(now Shiga).

Hideyoshi (1112–1184), descendant of Minamoto no Nariyori, lost his parents young and became an orphan. He was adopted byMinamoto no Tameyoshi(then head of the Seiwa Genji). He participated in theHōgen war(1156) in which his fatherMinamoto no Tameyoshiwas killed, and theHeiji war(1159) with his (adoptive) uncles, brothers, nephews, cousins and clansmen. After his brotherMinamoto no Yoshitomowas killed (1160), and the defeat of theSeiwa Genji,he went North to askFujiwara no Hidehiraof Mutsu province to give him shelter, but stopped at Shibuya (Sagami province) and remained at that place for 20 years. When his nephewMinamoto no Yoritomorose in revolt against theTaira,he with his four sons sided with him (1180). He was killed during theGenpei war(1180-1185) at the battle of Ōhara (1184) in Ōmi province fighting against theTaira clan.His descendants received from their Seiwa Genji cousins the title ofshugo(governor) of Ōmi and other provinces, which they kept until the 16th centurySengoku Periodwars. He is the ancestor of the Sasaki, theRokkaku,theAmago,theKyōgokuand theKurodaclans.

In 1868, at the end of theTokugawa period:

There existed a certain Sasaki Shrine where Sasaki Yamagimi, a warlord, worshiped the god of ancestor's spirit. Following the middle of the Heian period (794 - 858), the shrine was used to worship the tutelary god of the Sasaki clan. It is said that through this, the "Ōmi-Genji Festival"is held every year on October 10 in respect of the Sasaki clan. One member of note amongst the Sasaki clan is none other thanSasaki Kojiro,the famous swordsman and rival ofMiyamoto Musashi.The favorite technique of Kojiro was his "Tsubame Gaeshi" (Turning Swallow Cut), which he attempted to use on Musashi throughout their duel. It is also known that the Sasaki clan apparently was a political obstacle to that of theHosokawa,and the defeat of Kojiro would be a political setback to his religious and political foes.

Genealogy

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Bold designates a master. The "〇" mark is a person who participated inMinamoto no Yoritomo's rising in arms.

Emperor Uda(867-931)
┃
Prince Atsumi(893-967)
┃
Minamoto no Masazane(920-993)
┃
Sukenori(951-998)
┃
Nariyori(976-1003)
┃
Noritsune(1000-1058)
┃
TsunekataTametoshiSasaki Hideyoshi(1112–1184)
┣━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━┳━━━━━┓
〇SadatsunaTsunetakaMoritsunaTakatsunaYoshikiyo
┏━━━━━━┳━━━━━┳━━━━━┫ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┣━━━━━┓
HirotsunaSadashigeHirosadaNobutsunaTakashigeKaji NobuzaneShigetunaMasayoshiYasukiyo
┏━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━┓ ┏━━━━━┳━━━━━┫
ShigetsunaTakanobuRokkaku YasutsunaKyogoku UjinobuYoriyasuYoshiyasuMuneyasu

See also

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References

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  1. ^Iwao, Seiichiet al.(2002).Dictionnaire historique du Japon,p. 1704.
  2. ^Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéricet al.(2002).Japan Encyclopedia,p. 547.

Sources

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  • Iwao,Seiichi, Teizō Iyanaga, Susumu Ishii, Shōichirō Yoshida,et al.(2002).Dictionnaire historique du Japon.Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose.ISBN978-2-7068-1632-1;OCLC 51096469
  • Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2002).Japan Encyclopedia.at Google BooksCambridge:Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0-674-00770-3(cloth) --ISBN978-0-674-01753-5(paper)