Utsunomiya

The Utsunomiya were the chief house of Shimotsuke, a Fujiwara Hokke line whose ancestor Fujiwara no Sōen became head of Futarasan Shrine at Utsunomiya. The third head Tomotsuna, first to bear the name, fought in the 1189 Ōshū campaign. His grandson Yoritsuna took Buddhist orders after a shogunate purge and patronised a poetic circle; Fujiwara no Teika is said to have chosen the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu at its request.

In 1333 Kintsuna marched against Kusunoki Masashige with a dozen or so riders, and Masashige withdrew without a fight, awed by the Utsunomiya name; Kintsuna served the Kenmu government while his son sided with Ashikaga Takauji, dividing the family between the courts. In the Sengoku age Shigetsuna crushed the Ashina and routed a Satake coalition, and his grandson Hirotsuna led the northern Kantō league holding the Later Hōjō in check.

The last head Kunitsuna joined Toyotomi Hideyoshi at Odawara in 1590 and received the Toyotomi surname, but was attainted and exiled to Bizen in 1597; his descendants became Mito retainers.