Munakata

The Munakata were an ancient maritime clan of Chikuzen in northern Kyūshū, also recorded as Munakata no Kimi, ruling the Munakata district and Genkai Sea waters while serving as hereditary priests of Munakata Taisha, shrine of three goddesses. After the 645 Taika reform it headed the shrine's sacred district, and in 979 the court created the daiguji, or chief priest, post for them.

Maritime wealth brought marriage ties with Hakata's Chinese merchants; Kamakura gokenin, the Munakata fought the Mongol invasion of 1281 and won an estate in Hizen. In 1333 they helped overthrow the Chinzei deputy, and from 1336 backed Ashikaga Takauji, fighting at Tatara-hama and holding Iki as shugo.

Through the fifteenth century they balanced between the Ōuchi and Shōni, leaning to the Ōuchi to preserve the clan. Caught in the sixteenth-century wars, the clan's last head, Munakata Ujisada, died of disease in 1587 without an heir, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi confiscated its lands in the Kyūshū campaign.