Nitta

The Nitta were a Seiwa Genji family named for their estate in Kōzuke Province. Nitta Yoshisada destroyed the Kamakura shogunate in 1333, and in 1337 he was the leading general of Emperor Go-Daigo's Southern Court against Ashikaga Takauji, holding out in Echizen after Kanegasaki fell.

Yoshisada was killed at Fujishima in 1338. His sons fought on: Yoshioki briefly retook Kamakura but was murdered at the Yaguchi ferry in 1358, and Yoshimune died at Numata in 1368, ending the main line. The Iwamatsu branch, which had sided with the Ashikaga, received the Nitta estate, and the Tokugawa later claimed Nitta descent.