Kida Clan (木田氏)

The Kida clan was one of the Japanese shizoku families (clan, samurai family). This clan included a prominent family inheriting the lineage of Mino Genji (the Minamoto clan), detailed as follows.

During the late Heian Period, the Kida clan was started when MINAMOTO no Shigenaga, a member of the Yajima clan based in Mino Province, settled down in Kida-go, Katagata District, Mino Province (near Kida, Gifu City, Gifu Prefecture), calling himself Saburo KIDA. Shigenaga's children had fought in the Jisho-Juei Civil War as members of Mino-Genji, resulting in the deaths of Shigehiro KIDA and his nephew Shigekane KIDA. In the Jokyu War, some members of the clan including Shigekuni KIDA, the heir of the clan, and his son Shigetomo KIDA were killed as they belonged to kyogata (the Kyoto side or supporters of the Imperial court in Kyoto). The clan nevertheless had survived through the Medieval Period, and the official family lineage to succeed the clan also called themselves 'the Kaida clan' for generations. Also, some members of the clan became priests, including Gangyo (Kenzen) who founded Annyo-in Temple in Kamakura (Kamakura City).

Among its branch families was the Mikawa-Yamamoto clan that had served the Imagawa clan during the Sengoku Period (period of warring states), calling themselves the descendants of the Yoshino clan, a member family of the Kida clan. "Sonpi Bunmyaku" (a text compiled in the fourteenth century that records the lineages of the aristocracy) states that the family tree of the Akechi clan, a branch family of the Toki clan, was also connected to the Kida clan.

In addition, MINAMOTO no Mitsumune (a son of MINAMOTO no Mitsuyasu) who also belonged to Mino Genji and committed suicide after the Heiji Disturbance supposedly called himself 'Kida.'

[Original Japanese]