Nitta

The Nitta were a Seiwa Genji house of Kozuke Province, named after the manor held by their ancestor Minamoto no Yoshishige. The family held only provincial weight under the Kamakura shogunate after sitting out much of the Genpei War.

Nitta Yoshisada answered Emperor Go-Daigo's call against the Hojo and stormed Kamakura in 1333, driving the regent Takatoki to suicide and ending the shogunate, but defeat by the Ashikaga at the Minatogawa in 1336 forced him into the Hokuriku with two imperial princes. His son Yoshiaki and the princes died at Kanegasaki in 1337; Yoshisada fell at Kuromaru in 1338, traditionally killing himself when trapped under his dead horse.

His remaining sons fought on for the Southern Court, but the Ashikaga destroyed the main line. The Tokugawa shoguns later claimed descent from a Nitta branch, a genealogy most historians doubt.