akiu clan

Can you tell me more about the akiu family from the Sendai area in the 15th century? I just wanted to know about the origins of the name itself and of the family? Would they have a family crest also?

Hi

I think that the clan you're thinking of is the Date clan, who were active in the Akiu area of Sendai.

Date clan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_clan
Akiu area: http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/regional/miyagi/akiu.html

I'm referring to the following link:

http://219.118.79.164/article_list.do;jsessionid=75647D0F5963952B02097...

This article mentions an Akiu Morifusa who is of the Akiu clan. I am wondering about the family crest and if its tied to any other families in Japan besides the Date.

I wasn't able to find a crest for the Akiu clan, only this one for the Date clan:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/vayardley/3117816520

Maybe someone else knows more...

Here is the basic info and the family crest of the Akiu clan. The family crest is called "Sankai-Matsu"(Three-layered Pines).
http://www2.harimaya.com/sengoku/html/akiu_k.html

The Akiu family is believed to be the descendant of Kiyomori Taira, the 12 century regent from the powerful family. Some of the remaining Taira family had exiled and scattered throughout Japan when Kiyomori's sons lost the war against the Minamoto clan, and the Akiu family claims that it links with the descendant of the oldest heir, Shigemori, although they might actually be derived from the Nagasaki clan who had served under the Hojo family and sent in the Akiu area originally as Jitou, a tax collector, around 14th century, later grown to be the governor of the area, as the website says. Either way, they took the name of the area they governed during the Muromachi era, which was very common practice in the feudal Japan.

The original meaning of Akiu is unknown, but there are few theories.
http://akiuonsenkumiai.com/whats.html

- The area is believed to be developed by a person named "Akiu Fujiwara" in the Heian era.
- It came from the passage of the Chinese poem, meaning "extend the fall season" implying the longevity.
- It came from the old Japanese/Ainu language, the Akiu derived from Apou, meaning "waterfall".
- It simply represents beautiful fall season scenery. The oldest description of it comes from the Kokin Wakashu, the oldest collection of Japanese poems conceived in 905.

Making it a bit more clear.

The Nagasaki family (who served under the Hojo) actually claims that they are the descendent of Sukemori Taira, the second son of Shigemori (who was the heir to Kiyomori Taira). So basically, two claims are the same.

In an online article at:

http://reitoji.com/en/about.html

titled "4] Re-Dedication as Reito-ji (1634)" (click for more details at link),

it says "The historical record says that in attendance were "Mr. Akiu on behalf of Yakata-sama (Tsunamura, the fourth lord of the clan)".

Who is "Mr. Akiu"?

Is it Akiu Morifusa or Akiu Fujiwara?

Akiu Fujiwara is someone from the Heian Period (10~12th century), and Morifusa Akiu had died in 1551. The information of the website in Japanese is also not too clear and simply stating "The Akiu clan (not sure if it's one person or multiple) had attended on behalf of Yakata-sama (that would be Tsunamura Date, the great grand son of the famous Masamune Date).

The person of the attendance could have been Naomori Akiu (1568~1637), or his sons, Sadamori or Moritsugu.

By the way, this site tells us that, with the 4th generation after Sadamori, the Akiu's original bloodline had cut off (due to lack of child?) in the later 17th century, the Akiu family had adopted Masamori, a son of Takahiro Matsumae, the lord of the Matsumae clan in Hokkaido.
http://bit.ly/1OdkuQb

And this Akiu Onsen official website says that the Akiu's 31st clan leader, Mr. Hidemori Akiu, currently lives in Tokyo. Maybe you can contact him through the Onsen committee?
http://akiusato.jp/history/tousyu.html

Also, your ancestral temple might be Daiunji, not Touenji, according to the website above. You might know more about your family if you could have a chance to visit there and talk to the head monk.
http://sekishin.info/temples/taihaku/daiunji/

Thank you. I just might have to make a trip there to find out more. I just have one more question. Was the Akiu family priests or were they of the samurai caste? Whom did they serve?

Is the name "Akiu" originally Chinese?

--- Was the Akiu family priests or were they of the samurai caste? Whom did they serve?

So the Akiu clan claims that they (you) are the descendent of Shigemori Taira, who was the oldest son of Kiyomori Taira. While the Taira clan had lost against the Minamoto family, you cannot get any noble as Taira/Minamoto, as they are the original samurai who once ruled and battled for the lordship of Japan. You should read books like "The Tale of Heike" (Eiji Yoshikawa) or "Genpei" (Kara Dalkey).

The origin of the Taira clan comes from Prince Takamochi, the fifth generation of Emperor Kanmu (in the 9th century). So the clan had the lineage from "the Imperial family" --- "Taira" --- "Nagasaki" --- "Akiu" in those 500 years or so.

However, I mind you that I said the Akiu clan had "clamed" to be the descendent of the Taira, but as the bloodlines of Taira were very hard to prove because they lost the war against the Minamoto at the Genpei War, and most of the family members including Shigemori were killed then. In fact, maybe the half the samurai lords during the Sengoku era claimed to be the descendent of the Taira, perhaps in order to justify their leaderships.

As I mentioned above, the Akiu clan had settled in the Sendai area as a tax collector, which was a low-ranked samurai/bureaucrat (somewhere during 13~15te century) and seemed to serve for the Mogami/Date clans, as the homestead of Akiu was probably struggled for survival between these larger regional powers.



--- Is the name "Akiu" originally Chinese?

No, no Japanese surnames come fro China for what I know, as most nobles and samurai had adopted their names from 1) the land they lived and governed, or 2) from their occupations.

For example, "Achi" who claimed to be the direct descendent of Emperor Ling of Han (in the 2nd century), had exile to Japan during the 3~4th century. This family was first known as the Tou Kan (East Han) clan in Japan, but by the 6th century, they adopted localized names like Sakanoue, Fumi, Ikebe, and Arata. Fumi means "writing" but the rest probably came from the land they had governed.

As I mentioned before, there is a possibility that the name of the land "Akiu" was taken from the Chinese verse as the website mentioned, but it's very unlikely.