Kikkawa

The Kikkawa were a samurai clan tracing descent from the Fujiwara through the Irie and Kudō families. They took their name from Kikkawa in Suruga Province and submitted to Minamoto no Yoritomo under the Kamakura shogunate.

After the Jōkyū War of 1221 the clan became steward of the Ōasa estate in Aki, where the main line settled in 1313. The Kikkawa later served the Ōuchi and the Amago. In 1550 Kikkawa Okitsune was destroyed through a plot by Mōri Motonari, who placed his son Motoharu into the family as heir.

With the Kobayakawa, the Kikkawa became one of the Two Rivers upholding Mōri power. Motoharu led troops in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Kyūshū campaign; his son Hiroie fought at Ulsan and issued a house code of 188 clauses. Under the Tokugawa the family ruled Iwakuni Domain into the nineteenth century.