Miura

The Miura were one of the eight Taira clans of the Kanto, the Bando Hachi Heishi, named for Sagami's Miura peninsula, ruled from the eleventh century. Tametsugu and his son Yoshitsugu, self-styled Miura no suke, made the clan leading provincial officials in eastern Sagami.

Yoshiaki answered Minamoto no Yoritomo's call to arms in 1180, dying defending Kinugasa castle after defeat at Ishibashiyama. His son Yoshizumi became one of Yoritomo's senior councillors and sat on the thirteen-man regency council; the Miura stood at the height of Kamakura politics, kin and rivals to the Hojo regents.

When Yasumura threatened to overshadow the Hojo, regent Tokiyori crushed them in the Hoji war of 1247 and the main line perished. A compliant Sawara side branch revived the name as Hojo housemen and grew into a Sengoku daimyo house, until Hojo Soun took Arai castle in 1516 and lords Yoshiatsu and his son Yoshimoto killed themselves. An Edo branch became daimyo and settled at Katsuyama in 1764.