Hosokawa clan 細川氏 |
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The emblem (mon) of the Hosokawa clan
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Home province | Various |
Parent house | Ashikaga clan |
Titles | Various |
Founder | Ashikaga Yoshisue |
Current head | Morihiro Hosokawa |
Dissolution | still extant |
Ruled until | 1947, Constitution of Japan renders titles obsolete |
Cadet branches | Nagaoka clan Kumamoto Kumamoto-Shinden Udo Hitachi-Yatabe Saikyu clan |
The Hosokawa clan (細川氏 Hosokawa-shi?) was a Japanese samurai kin group or clan
The clan was descended from the Seiwa Genji, a branch of the Minamoto clan, and ultimately from Emperor Seiwa himself, through the Ashikaga clan. It produced many prominent officials in the Ashikaga shogunate's administration. In the Edo period, the Hosokawa clan was one of the largest landholding daimyō families in Japan. In the present day, the current clan head Morihiro Hosokawa, has served as Prime Minister of Japan.
Ashikaga Yoshisue, son of Ashikaga Yoshizane, was the first to take the name of Hosokawa. Hosokawa Yoriharu, a Hosokawa of the late Kamakura period, fought for the Ashikaga clan against the Kamakura shogunate. Another, Hosokawa Akiuji, helped establish the Ashikaga shogunate.
The clan wielded significant power over the course of the Muromachi (1336–1467), Sengoku (1467–1600), and Edo periods, moving, however, from Shikoku, to Kinai, and then to Kyūshū over the centuries.