Mōri

The Mōri were a samurai clan. Their founder Mōri Suemitsu (1202–1247), son of Ōe no Hiromoto, took his name from the Mōri estate in Sagami Province. He was made steward in Aki after the Jōkyū War of 1221, joined the Miura against the Hōjō in 1247 and killed himself in defeat. His son Tsunemitsu's line survived.

The Aki line held Yoshida, kept its distance from the Kenmu Restoration of 1333 and followed Ashikaga Takauji. Mōri Motonari (1497–1571) made it a Sengoku daimyō house.

Motonari formed the Two Rivers system through the Kikkawa and Kobayakawa houses, defeated Sue Harukata at Itsukushima in 1555 and overthrew the Amago in 1566. His grandson Terumoto submitted to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but as nominal head of the western army at Sekigahara in 1600 lost the eastern provinces and kept only Nagato and Suō, the future Chōshū Domain.