Yamana

The Yamana were a samurai house of the Seiwa Genji, descended from Minamoto no Yoshishige. Founder Yamana Yoshinori took his name from Yamana village in Kozuke, and his descendants served Minamoto no Yoritomo.

Backing Ashikaga Takauji in the Nanboku-cho wars, they became shugo of eleven provinces at their peak, earning the nickname One-Sixth Lord. The Meitoku Rebellion against Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in 1391 cost them most holdings. Yamana Sozen rebuilt their fortunes, but his feud with Hosokawa Katsumoto ignited the Onin War in 1467, wrecking Kyoto and opening the Sengoku period.

By the late sixteenth century the family held little beyond Inaba, where Yamana Suketoyo developed the Ikuno silver mine and built Arikoyama Castle before defeat in 1580. His successor Toyokuni fought at Sekigahara in 1600 and kept a small domain under Tokugawa Ieyasu; the house survived until the Edo period's end.