Kudō

The Kudō were a clan of the Fujiwara southern house, whose name began in the mid-ninth century when Fujiwara no Tamenori, holding the court office of Mokunosuke, was styled Kudō Taifu. His grandson Korekage became governor of Suruga and founded the Suruga Kudō around Abe, while branches spread to Izu and Kai.

The Izu Kudō threw off local houses including the Itō and Kanō; the Itō migrated to Hyūga in the Nanboku-chō period and became Sengoku daimyō, and the Ii of Tōtōmi later claimed Kudō blood. Early fame was violent: Suketsune's murder of Kawazu Sukeyasu provoked the Soga brothers' revenge, a famous early-shogunate vendetta, while Shigemitsu was ancestor of the Kanō family whose painters founded the Kanō school.

A Kai branch served the Takeda: Sukenaga was adopted into the Naitō name as Naitō Masahide, one of Shingen's twenty-four generals, and fell at Nagashino in 1575; surviving Kudō entered Tokugawa service when the Takeda fell in 1582.