Nanbu clan
Shichinohe began as one of a series of numbered fortified settlements established by the Nanbu clan in the early Kamakura period to control their new territories in Nukada District of northern Ōshū. Shichinohe Castle was controlled by a branch of the Nanbu clan for several generations until the end of Sengoku period, when in 1591, the Shichinohe Nanbu clan opposed the forces of Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the Kunohe Rebellion and were defeated. The clan survived as "hatamoto" under the main lineage of the Nanbu clan at Morioka Domain under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. The Shichinohe Domain, a subsidiary domain of Morioka Domain was created in 1819.