Japan’s Warring States Period, the Sengoku-jidai, was a century and a half of local feudal daimyo lords fighting for control of Japan. It began in 1467 with the Onin War, a ten-year affair that finished off the long-standing Ashikaga Shogunate, and ended (arguably) in 1603 with the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the great unifying force that would remain in power for the next 265 years. It would seem logical that during those hundred and fifty years of fighting, control over the Matsumoto and the surrounding Shinano area would have changed hands many times over. It would also stand to reason that during the relative constancy of the Tokugawa shogunate … Continue reading A Closer Look at the Ruling Clans of Matsumoto Castle