Nasu

The Nasu were a warrior clan of Nasu District in Shimotsuke, claiming descent from the northern Fujiwara and formerly called Sudō. Their most famous member, Nasu no Yoichi, shot a fan on a Taira ship from the shore at the Battle of Yashima in 1185, as told in the Heike Monogatari.

The Nasu became Kamakura gokenin and later one of the eight great houses of the Kantō. In the fifteenth century they split into rival Upper and Lower houses; in 1514 Nasu Sukefusa of the Lower house reunited them after the Upper house fell to internal strife.

The clan lost its lands after arriving late for Hideyoshi's Odawara campaign in 1590, though a retainer secured the heir five thousand koku. They later became daimyō of Nasu and Karasuyama, but a succession quarrel brought attainder in 1687. The house continued as a 1,000-koku kōtai-yoriai family.