Andō

The Andō were a warrior house of northern Japan who claimed descent from the Heian rebel Abe no Sadatō. From the early Kamakura period an Andō head handled Ezo affairs in Tsugaru; by the late thirteenth century the clan served the Hōjō as Ezo deputies, overseeing trade with the Ainu.

A family feud and an Ezo uprising known as the War of the Andō weakened the house, which split into the Hiyama and Minato branches. In the sixteenth century Andō Chikasue reunited them and took the surname Akita, from Akita Port and the hereditary title Akita jō-no-suke.

His son Sanesue won the Minato succession quarrel in 1587 but had his lands cut back by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Under the Tokugawa the family moved to Miharu in Mutsu, remaining tozama daimyō through the Edo period.