Daijō

The Daijō were the main line of the Hitachi Heishi, descendants of Taira no Kunika, who dominated medieval Hitachi's administration. The house took its name from the office of Hitachi Daijō: in 1193 Minamoto no Yoritomo appointed Yoshida Sukemoto to the post and the headship of the Hitachi Taira. The Daijō never became shugo, relying on the provincial government and Kashima Shrine.

Daijō Takamoto backed the Southern Court, helping defend Urizura Castle before it fell in 1336, and submitted to the Ashikaga in 1338. The house joined Uesugi Zenshū's rebellion of 1416, lost Mito Castle in 1419, and its head Mitsumoto was executed in 1429.

After the Daijō failed to join Hideyoshi's Odawara campaign of 1590, Satake Yoshishige overran Fuchū Castle and the last head Kiyomoto killed himself. The Satake slaughtered the allied Thirty-Three Houses of southern Hitachi at Ōta Castle the next year.