Japanese clans

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This is a list of Japanese clans. The old clans (gōzoku) mentioned in the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki lost their political power before the Heian period, during which new aristocracies and families, kuge, emerged in their place. After the Heian period, the samurai warrior clans gradually increased in importance and power until they came to dominate the country after the founding of the first shogunate.

Ancient clan names[edit]

There are ancient-era clan names called Uji-na (氏名しめい) or Honsei (本姓ほんせい).

Imperial Clan[edit]

Mon of The Imperial House
  • The Imperial clan – descended from Amaterasu. Its emperors and clan members have no clan name but had been called "the imperial house" (皇室こうしつ) if necessary.

Four noble clans[edit]

Gempeitōkitsu (源平げんぺい藤ふじ橘たちばな), 4 noble clans of Japan:

Mon of the Minamoto clan
Mon of the Taira clan
Mon of the Fujiwara clan
Mon of the Tachibana clan

Noble clans[edit]

Aristocratic family names[edit]

From the late ancient era onward, the family name (Myōji/苗字みょうじ or 名字みょうじ) had been commonly used by samurai to denote their family line instead of the name of the ancient clan that the family line belongs to (uji-na/氏名しめい or honsei/本姓ほんせい), which was used only in the official records in the Imperial court. Kuge families also had used their family name (Kamei/家名かめい) for the same purpose. Each of samurai families is called "[family name] clan (氏し)" as follows and they must not be confused with ancient clan names. The list below is a list of various aristocratic families whose families served as Shugo, Shugodai, Jitō, and Daimyo

Mon of the Akita clan
Mon of the Asano clan
Mon of the Hōjō clan
Mon of the Honda clan
Mon of the (Mino) Ikeda clan
Mon of the Itō clan
Mon of the Maeda clan
Banner with the Mon of the Matsumae clan
Mon of the Mori clan (森もり氏し)
Mon of the Takeda clan
Mon of the Toki clan
Mon 'Mitsuboshi ni ichimonji' of the Watanabe clan

Zaibatsu[edit]

Zaibatsu were the industrial and financial vertically integrated business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period until the end of World War II.

Sacerdotal clans[edit]

Ryukyu[edit]

Ryukyuan people are not Yamato people, but the Ryukyu Islands have been part of Japan since 1879.

Mon of the Ryukyu Kingdom

Ryukyuan dynasties:

Toraijin (渡来とらい人じん)[edit]

Main article: Toraijin

Toraijin is used to describe migrants in many contexts, from the original migration of a Yamato peoples to more recent migrants. According to the book Shinsen Shōjiroku compiled in 815, a total 326 out of 1,182 families in the Kinai area on Honshū were regarded as people with foreign genealogy. The book specifically mentions mentions 163 were from China, such families from Baekje, 41 from Goguryeo, 9 from Silla, and 9 from Gaya. These families are considered notable, although not inherently noble.[4][5]

Baekje[edit]

Goguryeo[edit]

Silla[edit]

Gaya[edit]

China[edit]

See also[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Japanese clans.

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Nelson, John K. (2000). Enduring Identities: The Guise of Shinto in Contemporary Japan, pp. 67–69.
  2. ^ Cranston, Edwin A. (1998). A Waka Anthology, p. 513.
  3. ^ Grapard, Allan G. (1992). The protocol of the gods, p. 42.
  4. ^ Saeki, Arikiyo (1981). Shinsen Shōjiroku no Kenkyū (Honbun hen) (in Japanese). Yoshikawa Kōbunkan. ISBN 4-642-02109-4.
  5. ^ "渡来とらい人じんと赤穂あこう". The KANSAI Guide - The Origin of Japan, KANSAI (in Japanese). Retrieved 2022-09-14.

References[edit]

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