Inawashiro

The Inawashiro were a warrior house of the Aizu basin in Mutsu province, seated at Inawashiro on the lake of the same name. They sprang from the Sawara branch of the Miura clan: around the mid-thirteenth century Sawara Tsunetsura, elder brother of the Ashina founder Mitsumori, settled at Inawashiro and took its name.

Through the Muromachi and Sengoku ages the house repeatedly warred with its Ashina overlords. When the lord Tsunemoto died without an heir the family adopted Morikiyo from the Ashina house.

His son Morikuni opened secret talks with Date Masamune and defected to him as the Ashina crumbled, fighting at the Battle of Suriagehara in 1589, while his disinherited son Moritane stayed loyal to the Ashina. After Masamune's reshuffle of fiefs following the Odawara campaign, the Inawashiro entered Date service and remained Sendai retainers under the Tokugawa.