Nawa

The Nawa were a warrior family of Hōki Province in western Honshu, whose power rested on the Nawa manor along the Sea of Japan coast.

In 1333, their best-known member, Nawa Nagatoshi, sheltered Emperor Go-Daigo after his escape from the Oki Islands and raised troops at Mount Senjō. He was rewarded with the governorship of Hōki after the Kamakura shogunate fell.

Nagatoshi remained a Southern Court loyalist and was killed in August 1336 leading an attack on the Tō-ji temple in Kyoto, where Ashikaga Takauji had installed Emperor Kōmyō. His descendants lost their Hōki footing and moved to Higo Province in Kyushu, settling in Yatsushiro and later Uto. In the Edo period they served the Tachibana lords of Yanagawa as retainers.