Nakajima

The Nakajima of Owari claimed descent from the Saga Genji line of Minamoto no Toru, son of Emperor Saga. After the Jokyu War in 1221, the family settled in Nakajima village in Owari and took its name. Saemon-no-jo Nobunaga first styled himself Nakajima, and his heirs held Nakajima Castle.

The family remained local lords through the Muromachi period, but declined under pressure from the Shiba and Oda and entered Toyotomi Hideyoshi's service. Its best-known member, Nakajima Ujitane, became one of the Toyotomi house's seven hand-group captains, with over twenty thousand koku.

Ujitane fought in Ishida Mitsunari's army at Sekigahara in 1600 and led two thousand men in the Osaka summer campaign of 1615, taking his life as the castle fell. His descendants became wealthy farmers in Kawachi.