- Japanese: 細川氏 (Hosokawa-shi)
The Hosokawa were descended from Ashikaga Yoshiyasu (1126-1157), whose great-grandson Ashikaga Yoshisue took the name Hosokawa. Yoshisue's own great-grandson Yoriharu (1299-1352) was a staunch supporter of Ashikaga Takauji during the early Nambokucho Period. As a result the Hosokawa became influential under the Ashikaga shôguns as a powerful shûgo family. Hosokawa Yoriyuki (1329-1392) served as the first kanrei (Deputy/Vice-shôgun) and acted as guardian and counsel to Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. Hosokawa Katsumoto (1430-1473) was one of the most powerful figures in Kyoto politics in his day and shûgo of much of Shikoku Island. In part as a result of a succession dispute surrounding shôgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Katsumoto and Yamana Mochitoyo, another powerful shûgo, became involved in a conflict that consumed Kyoto and would become known as the Ônin War (1467-77). In the aftermath of this struggle, which is often marked as the opening of the Sengoku Period, the Hosokawa managed to retain their hold on Kyoto into the 16th Century. Internal struggles and the rise of the Miyoshi, formerly Hosokawa retainers, led to the eclipse of the Hosokawa by 1550. One branch of the family survived to much success under Hosokawa Fujitaka and his son Tadaoki. Thanks to their efforts, the Hosokawa family would endure as daimyô to the end of the Edo Period.
|Prominent Members of the Hosokawa clan|
- Initial text from Sengoku Biographical Dictionary (Samurai-Archives.com) FWSeal & CEWest, 2005