Masuda

The Masuda were a warrior house of Iwami Province, holding Masuda from the twelfth century to 1600. They traced their line to Fujiwara Kunikane, governor of Iwami. Kanetaka moved the family seat to Masuda and took its name, fighting under Minamoto no Yoshitsune at Ichi-no-Tani in 1184 and Dan-no-ura in 1185.

Kanetsu campaigned in the Ōnin War of 1467 and entertained the painter Sesshū Tōyō, who painted his portrait in gratitude. Long allied with the Ōuchi and pressed by the Amago, the family submitted to the Mōri. Motoyoshi received a character of his name from Mōri Motonari and profited from overseas trade.

On the Toyotomi side at Sekigahara in 1600 though absent from battle, they kept their lands under Tokugawa Ieyasu but chose to follow the dispossessed Mōri to Susa in Nagato, ending four centuries of rule in Masuda.