Ii

The Ii were a Tōtōmi warrior house who claimed Fujiwara Hokke descent and held the Iinoya manor for some five centuries. Ii Hachirō appears in the Hōgen War narrative following Minamoto no Yoshitomo, and the Azuma Kagami lists it among Kamakura gokenin.

In the Nanboku-chō wars the head Ii Yukinao joined the Southern Court, welcomed Prince Muneyoshi to Iinoya Castle, and fought Northern generals until Mitsutake fell in 1340; the house then submitted to the Imagawa of Suruga.

Imagawa service ended bloodily: Naomori fell at Okehazama in 1560, his heir Naochika was murdered by Imagawa Ujizane, and Naomori's daughter Naotora held the chieftaincy through the collapse. Her adopted heir Naomasa fled to Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1575, became one of his Four Heavenly Kings, and received Minowa in 1590 and Sawayama, a hundred and eighty thousand koku, after Sekigahara. His son built Hikone Castle in 1604; the Ii rose to three hundred thousand koku as the premier fudai house and served repeatedly as tairō.