page_title: Sōma clan
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Sōma clan / Origins
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 相馬師常の画像(「相馬家歴代藩主像」より)。
context_page_description: The Sōma clan was a Japanese samurai clan who ruled the northern Hamadōri region of southern Mutsu Province in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan for over 700 years, from the Kamakura period through the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The Sōma claimed descent from the Taira clan via the Chiba clan and took their name from the Chiba clan territories in Sōma District of northern Shimōsa Province. The clan moved its seat from Shimōsa to Mutsu Province in the early Kamakura period, and were confirmed as daimyō of Sōma Nakamura Domain under the Edo-period Tokugawa shogunate.
  During the Boshin War of 1868–69, the Sōma clan fought on the site of the Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei, supporting the Tokugawa regime. After Meiji Restoration, the head of the Sōma clan became part of the kazoku peerage, with Sōma Aritane receiving the title of shishaku.
context_section_description: Sōma Morotsune was the younger son of Chiba Tsunetane, and with his father was a samurai in the service of Minamoto no Yoritomo. He took his name from the Sōma Mikuriya, a shōen controlled by Ise Shrine in what is now northwest Chiba Prefecture, which supplied horses to the shrine and the Imperial household. He accompanied Yoritomo in the conquest of the Hiraizumi Fujiwara in 1189, and was awarded with estates covering three districts in southern Mutsu: Namekata, Shineha, and Uda.
  During the Nanboku-chō period following the fall of the Kamakura shogunate the Sōma were one of the few clans in Mutsu to remain loyal to the Northern Court.
caption: Sōma Morotsune
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