Takeda

The Takeda were a Seiwa Genji clan of Kai, tracing to Minamoto no Yoshimitsu, whose son Yoshikiyo took the Takeda name from a Hitachi estate before the family settled in Kai. They backed Yoritomo in the Genpei War; Nobumitsu's Ichinotani service in 1184 earned him Kai's constableship, and his Jokyu War part in 1221 added Aki. From these came the Kai main line and several cadet houses.

Nobutora united Kai but was deposed in 1541 by his son Harunobu, the future Takeda Shingen. Shingen built a cavalry-famed army, seized Shinano, and fought rival Uesugi Kenshin in the five Kawanakajima battles from 1553, the bloodiest in 1561.

After routing Tokugawa Ieyasu at Mikatagahara in 1573 Shingen died of illness on campaign; heir Katsuyori was crushed by Oda Nobunaga's muskets at Nagashino in 1575, and the clan fell in Nobunaga's 1582 invasion of Kai, Katsuyori killing himself at Tenmokuzan. Survivors and cadet lines served the Tokugawa shogunate, some as daimyo and others in the ceremonial High Families.