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Shimazu

The Shimazu clan is a Japanese samurai clan which, during the Sengoku period, ruled over Satsuma Province on Kyushu, and later ruled the Satsuma Domain. The Shimazu were descendants of the Minamoto clan scion Shimazu Tadahisa (a son of Minamoto Yoritomo), and they became one of the wealthiest and most powerful samurai clans, as they remained the rulers of their province from the rise of the Kamakura Shogunate to the Meiji Restoration and the abolition of the han system. In 1586, Yoshihisa Shimazu succeeded in unifying Kyushu, although the Shimazu clan was defeated by the Toyotomi clan during Hideyoshi Toyotomi's conquest of Kyushu in 1587. The Shimazu clan became Toyotomi's vassals, and they fought for the Toyotomi against the Tokugawa at the 1600 Battle of Sekigahara. Under Ieyasu Tokugawa's Tokugawa Shogunate, the Shimazu were granted the Satsuma Domain, and they conquered the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1609, building strong trade networks which would boost the clan's economy. The Satsuma Domain would go on to play a major role in the Boshin War of 1868-9, during which they supported Emperor Meiji against the Shogunate, and the domain was dissolved in 1871 on the abolition of the han system. The Shimazu clan existed into the 21st century through two family branches.

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