Akizuki clan

Akizuki clan 秋月氏
The Akizuki clan crest (mon)
Home province	Chikuzen
Current head	Akizuki Tanetaka (秋月種高)
Dissolution	Still extant

The Akizuki clan (秋月氏 Akizuki-shi) is a Japanese noble family from prehistoric age. In the Sengoku period, the Akizuki clan was a king of samurai (大名 Daimyo) on Japanese "Akizuki-country" in the Kyūshū island. From after the Sengoku period to end of World War II, the Akizuki family was a Japanese contemporary noble (華族 "Kazoku") again. After World War II, the land controlled by the Akizuki family became the Akizuki prefecture. Later, the Akizuki prefecture was combined to the Fukuoka Prefecture (福岡県 Fukuoka-ken).

Nowadays, the former Akizuki area is still referred to as "Akizuki, Asakura, Fukuoka prefecture". The Akizuki clan's main descendants are living in the Ōita Prefecture and Tokyo. "Akizuki clan" is the origin of name of an area of the Fukuoka prefecture, Akizuki-class destroyer (1942), and Akizuki-class destroyer (1959).

The movie director Akira Kurosawa directed a movie about the Akizuki clan, "The Hidden Fortress" (隠し砦の三悪人 Kakushi-toride-no-san-akunin), in 1958. The movie was remade in 2008 by movie director Shinji Higuchi.