Date

The Date were a samurai house claiming descent from Fujiwara no Uona through the Isa family of Hitachi. Their founder Isa Tomomune served Minamoto no Yoritomo and in 1189 received the Date district of Mutsu, from which the family took its name. In the 1330s the Date backed the Southern Court through its general Kitabatake Akiie.

Under Date Masamune, they destroyed the Ashina at Suriagehara in 1589 and seized Aizu, but Toyotomi Hideyoshi reduced their fief to Yonezawa after the Odawara campaign of 1590. Masamune then joined Tokugawa Ieyasu: in 1600 his troops and the Mogami routed Naoe Kanetsugu, and the clan received the Sendai Domain, where Masamune built Sendai Castle.

The Date ranked among the greatest Edo-period daimyō, though a succession struggle ended in bloodshed at Edo in 1671 as the Date Disturbance. Masamune's younger son Date Hidemune founded a branch at Uwajima in Shikoku.