Nitta clan

The Nitta clan (新田氏, Nitta-shi) was one of several major families descended from the Seiwa Genji, and numbered among the chief enemies of the Hōjō clan regents, and later the Ashikaga shogunate. The common ancestor of the Nitta, Minamoto no Yoshishige (1135 – 1202), was the elder brother of Minamoto no Yoshiyasu, the common ancestor of the Ashikaga clan. Yoshishige was the a landowner in the Nitta District of Kōzuke Province in present-day Gunma Prefecture. Yoshishige supported Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147 – 1199) in the Battle of Ishibashiyama of 1180 against the Taira clan.[1]

Nitta clan 新田氏
The mon of the Nitta clan.
Parent house	Seiwa Genji (Minamoto clan)
Titles	Various
Founder	Nitta Yoshishige (Minamoto no Yoshishige)
Final ruler	Nitta Yoshisada
Founding year	12th century
Ruled until	1338, death of Nitta Yoshisada
Cadet branches	Tokugawa clan Matsudaira clan Sakai clan Wakiya clan Yamana clan serada clan Horiguchi clan Iwamatsu clan odachi clan

The Nitta clan rose to importance in the early 13th century; they controlled Kozuke Province, and had little influence in Kamakura, the capital of the Kamakura shogunate, because their ancestor, Minamoto no Yoshishige had not joined his fellow clansmen in the Genpei War a century earlier.

In the 1330s, Nitta Yoshisada led the clan and a number of other Minamoto vassals against the Hōjō clan regents. They succeeded, in June 1333, in destroying the Bakufu's buildings in Kamakura.

The Nitta clan played an important role once again, allying with the Date clan and the Southern Courts, during the Nanboku-cho wars of the late 14th century.