Takeda clan (Aki)

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The Takeda clan of Aki was a cadet branch of the famed Takeda clan of Kai, descended from Emperor Seiwa (850-880) and the Minamoto clan (Seiwa Genji).The Takeda of Wakasa were a cadet branch of the Takeda of Aki.

Takeda Nobumitsu (1162-1248), eldest son of Takeda Nobuyoshi (then head of the Takeda clan), assisted at the campaign against Kiso Yoshinaka and against the Taira. He repressed the revolt of Wada Yoshimori (1213). At the time of the Jōkyu war (1221), he helped the Hōjō and entered Kyōto. In reward he received the title of Shugo (governor) of Aki province.

Takeda Nobutake (+ 1362) was the last Takeda Shugo of the three provinces of Kai, Aki and Wakasa. His elder son Nobunari received Kai and the younger Ujinobu received Aki and Wakasa provinces.

From the Muromachi period until the Sengoku period, the Takeda of Aki ruled both Aki and Wakasa provinces, were supporters of the Ashikaga against the Southern Dynasty, and sided with the Hosokawa clan durind the Ōnin war (1467-1477).

Their principal fortress was Kanayama castle, built on the top of the 411 meters of Mount Takeda; a castle built by Takeda Nobumune in the late Kamakura Period, near the present city of Hiroshima.

However, clashes with Mōri Motonari of Aki between 1516 and 1523 led to the clan's downfall. The principal line came to an end with the death of Takeda Nobuzane in 1555.

During the Tokugawa period, the Harada and the Yamaguchi families, Samurai of the Asano clan (Daimyo of Hiroshima), descended from the Takeda of Aki. According to the Yamaguchi family, the three most imortant strongholds that belonged to the Takeda of Aki were Kanayama castle (seen above), Kitsune castle and Ato castle (all in Aki province).