Ōuchi

The Ōuchi were a warrior house of western Japan, ruling from Yamaguchi in Suō Province from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Their genealogies claimed descent from Prince Imseong of Paekche, said to have settled in Japan in the seventh century. They rose as shogunate vassals and backed Ashikaga Takauji in the Nanboku-chō wars, holding six provinces at their height.

Their power rested on overseas commerce with Joseon Korea and Ming China. They ran trading missions in 1540 and 1549 and briefly hosted the Jesuit Francis Xavier in 1551. Yamaguchi became a cultural capital; Ōuchi Masahiro invited the painter Sesshū Tōyō in 1486.

The Ōuchi fought the Hosokawa at Ningbo in 1523. In 1551 the vassal Sue Harukata forced Ōuchi Yoshitaka to kill himself and installed a puppet; Mōri Motonari defeated Sue in 1555, and the last Ōuchi lord committed suicide in 1557.