Kobayakawa clan

Kobayakawa clan 小早川氏
The emblem (mon) of the Kobayakawa clan
Home province	Aki Chikuzen
Parent house	Doi clan
Founder	Kobayakawa Kagehira (Doi Kagehira)
Final ruler	Kobayakawa Hideaki
Founding year	13th century
Dissolution	1602
Ruled until	1602, death of Kobayakawa Hideaki
Cadet branches	Nuta Shinjô Takehara

Kobayakawa clan (小早川氏 Kobayakawa-shi) was a samurai clan of Japan's Sengoku period, whose holdings were in Kyūshū, the southernmost of Japan's main islands. Members of the Kobayakawa family served under the Mōri clan, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Close allies with the Kikkawa family, the Kobayakawa fought alongside the Kikkawa, Mōri, Toyotomi, and Ōtomo clans against the Shimazu, for control of Kyūshū at the end of the 16th century; they were awarded Chikuzen Province as their fief following the Shimazu's defeat, but the clan came to an end only a few decades later when Hideaki died without a successor.

Clan members of note

• Kobayakawa Tōhira (??-1237)
• Kobayakawa Kagehira (??-1244)
• Kobayakawa Korehira (??-1213)
• Kobayakawa Shigehira (??-1264)
• Kobayakawa Tomohira (??-1348)
• Kobayakawa Sadahira (??-1375)
• Kobayakawa Haruhira (??-1402)
• Kobayakawa Hirohira (1416-1473)
• Kobayakawa Takahira (1452-1499)
• Kobayakawa Sukehira (1485-1508)
• Kobayakawa Okihira (1505-1527)
• Kobayakawa Okikage (1519-1541)
• Kobayakawa Shigehira (1542-1574)
• Kobayakawa Takakage (1533–1597)
• Kobayakawa Hideaki (1577–1602)

References

• Frederic, Louis (2002). "Japan Encyclopedia." Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
• Sansom, George (1961). "A History of Japan: 1334–1615." Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
• Turnbull, Stephen (1998). 'The Samurai Sourcebook'. London: Cassell & Co.