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watan·abe

Watanabe (渡辺, "ferryside") is the fifth most common Japanese surname.The first to be named Watanabe were the samurai clan founded by Watanabe no Tsuna (953-1025), whose father was Minamoto no Mitsuru, a great-grandson of Minamoto no Tōru (822-895), a son of the Emperor Saga (786-842). Tsuna established the Watanabe branch of the Saga Genji clan, taking the family name from his residence at Watanabe, a port on the Yodo river in Settsu Province. He was companion in arms to Minamoto no Yorimitsu (944–1021), and famous for his military exploits in a number of tales and legends. Dominating Settsu Province as a focal area of maritime transportation in medieval Japan, the Watanabe family spread its influence widely. Their descendants settled in other areas, including Kyushu. Besides the mainstream of Watanabe, the Matsuura in Hizen Province, later daimyō of Hirado Domain, were the most famous and flourished branch. Several samurai clans claimed a genealogical relation to the above Watanabe family. They included Watanabe of Hakata and Watanabe of Ōmura. The Watanabe of Hakata were daimyō of Hakata Domain (Izumi Province) until the Meiji Restoration (1868). The Watanabe clan of Ōmura (Hizen Province) and the Watanabe clan of the Suwa (Shinano Province) were also ranked among the Peers after 1868. During the Hōgen rebellion (1156), and the Genpei War (1180-1185), the Watanabe sided with Minamoto no Yorimasa (1106-1180), then with Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-1199). In 1185, they sent ships and mounted warriors to support the Minamoto cause. The priest Mongaku Shōnin who urged Yoritomo to start a war against the Taira clan, and who managed to get a letter from the Emperor Go-Shirakawa (1127-1192) to Yoritomo, requesting that he set up an army and liberate the court from the tyranny of the Taira, was a kinsman of the Watanabe clan.

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