Sakakibara clan
Edo period Japanese samurai clan

The Sakakibara clan (Japanese: 榊原氏, Hepburn: Sakakibara-shi) was a Japanese samurai clan who rose to prominence during the Edo period under the Tokugawa shogunate. Before the Meiji Restoration, the clan served as daimyō of Takada Domain in Echigo Province. The Sakakibara were one of the four families who enjoyed the privilege of providing a regent during the minority of a Shōgun. Under the Meiji government's kazoku peerage system, the head of the clan held the title of viscount (shishaku).
Origins
The Sakakibara claimed descent from the Seiwa Genji via the Nitsuki clan, who ruled two districts of Iga Province from the early Muromachi period. The 9th generation descendant of Nitsuki Yoshinaga relocated to Sakakibara village in Ise Province (part of the present-day city of Tsu, Mie) and his son, Toshinaga was the first to take the name of "Sakakibara".
The Sakakibara initially served the Kitabatake clan, but later transferred their fealty to the Oda clan, and in 1584 were considered retainers of Oda Nobukane, brother of Oda Nobunaga. Around the same time, a branch of the clan settled in Mikawa Province and entered into the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu. The clan history is sketchy about this period, and there is some indication that the Sakakibara in Mikawa may have been the main branch of the clan.
Sakakibara Yasumasa (1548–1606) rose to prominence as a general under Tokugawa Ieyasu.
“Sakakibara clan” enters the record as edo period Japanese samurai clan. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sakakibara, clan and period can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sakakibara clan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.