Satake clan
The Satake clan was a powerful samurai clan, who ruled Hitachi Province from the late Heian period through the end of the Sengoku period. In 1600, the Satake sided with the pro-Toyotomi cause at the Battle of Sekigahara. After the defeat of the pro-Toyotomi forces by Tokugawa Ieyasu and the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Satake clan was punished by a severe reduction in its "kokudaka". and by being ordered to relocate from their ancestral territories in Hitachi Province to a much smaller fief in inhospitable northern Japan. As a result of this drop in income (to 205,000 "koku", or less than half of their previous "kokudaka" of around 540,000 "koku"), the Satake had to lay off many retainers, and institute a general stipend reduction for those it kept.