Matsudaira clan

Matsudaira clan
Matsudaira clan mon
Home province	Mikawa
Parent house	Minamoto clan
Titles	Various
Founder	Matsudaira Chikauji
Final ruler	Tokugawa Yoshinobu
Current head	Tsunenari Tokugawa
Founding year	14th century
Dissolution	still extant
Ruled until	1873 (Abolition of the han system)
Cadet branches	Various

The Matsudaira clan (松平氏, Matsudaira-shi^?) was a Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). Over the course of its history, the clan produced many branches, most of which are also in Mikawa Province. In the 16th century, the main Matsudaira line experienced a meteoric rise to success during the direction of Matsudaira Motoyasu, who changed his name to Tokugawa Ieyasu and became the first Tokugawa shogun. Ieyasu's line formed what became the Tokugawa clan; however, the branches retained the Matsudaira surname. Other branches were formed in the decades after Ieyasu, which bore the Matsudaira surname. Some of those branches were also of daimyō status.

After the Meiji Restoration and the abolition of the han system, the Tokugawa and Matsudaira clans became part of the new nobility.

The Matsudaira clan originated in Mikawa Province. Its origins are uncertain, but in the Sengoku era, the clan claimed descent from the medieval Seiwa Genji branch of the Minamoto clan. According to this claim, the founder of the Matsudaira line was Matsudaira Chikauji, who lived in the 14th century and established himself in Mikawa Province, at Matsudaira village.

In its territory in Mikawa Province, the Matsudaira clan was surrounded by much more powerful neighbors. To the west was the territory of the Oda clan of Owari Province; to the east, the Imagawa clan of Suruga. Each generation of Matsudaira family head had to carefully negotiate his relationship with these neighbors.