page_title: Suwa clan
section_title: Edo period onwards
hierarchical_section_title: Suwa clan / History / Edo period onwards
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 神長官守矢史料館 大祝墓所
context_page_description: The Suwa clan, also known as the Miwa clan was a Japanese clan hailing from the area encompassing Lake Suwa in Shinano Province. Originally a family of priests who served at the Suwa Grand Shrine, by the Kamakura period it thrived as a prominent warrior clan with close ties to the shogunate.
  Surviving the fall of both the Kamakura shogunate and the Southern Imperial Court which it supported, its feud with local rival clans, and frequent clashes with its neighbor in Kai, the Takeda clan, during the Sengoku period, the clan split into two branches by the Edo period: one ruling the Suwa Domain of Shinano as daimyō, with the other continuing to serve as priests of Suwa Grand Shrine.
context_section_description: Yoritada's eldest son, Yorimizu (頼水, 1571-1641) became the first daimyō to rule Suwa Domain, with the office of ōhōri passing down to his fourth son, Yorihiro (頼広). With this, the clan effectively split into two branches: the daimyō line and the ōhōri line. To distinguish themselves from the daimyō line, the priestly line altered one of the Chinese characters of their surname (from 諏訪 to 諏方).
  All in all, ten generations served as daimyō of Suwa Domain until the abolition of the han system during the Meiji period.
  Meanwhile, the establishment of State Shinto abolished the tradition of hereditary succession among Shinto priesthood, including that of Suwa Grand Shrine. Local clans such as the Suwa lost control of the shrine's traditional priestly offices (which in turn became defunct) as government appointees began to manage the shrine, which passed under state control.
  The last Suwa ōhōri, the fifteenth since Yorihiro, died in 2002 with no heirs.
caption: The graves of various Suwa ōhōri within the Moriya clan's estate grounds in Chino City, Nagano.
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