Ikeda

The Ikeda were a warrior clan of Kawabe in Settsu, whose ancestors stewarded the Ikeda estates in Settsu and Mino. Around the Genpei War Minamoto no Yasumasa married into the family, which thereafter claimed descent from Minamoto no Yorimitsu.

The Settsu line held Ikeda Castle until Ikeda Tomomasa lost power to Araki Murashige in the 1570s; his line continued as Tokugawa hatamoto. The Mino branch rose under Ikeda Tsuneoki, Oda Nobunaga's milk brother, who held 130,000 koku at Ōgaki in 1583 but fell with his eldest son at Nagakute in 1584.

His second son Terumasa married Tokugawa Ieyasu's daughter and fought on the Tokugawa side at Sekigahara in 1600. He received Himeji with 520,000 koku and built Himeji Castle; his heirs became lords of Okayama, while a junior branch ruled Tottori, both lasting as daimyō into the nineteenth century.