Tachibana clan (Sengoku period)

Tachibana clan
The emblem (mon) of the Tachibana clan
Home province	Chikuzen
Parent house	Ōtomo clan
Founder	Tachibana Sadatoshi (Ōtomo Sadatoshi)
Founding year	14th century

This article is about the Tachibana (立花) samurai clan. For the Tachibana (橘) court noble family、see Tachibana clan (kuge).

The Tachibana clan (立花氏) was a Japanese clan of daimyo (feudal lords) during Japan's Sengoku and Edo periods. Originally based in Tachibana castle in Kyūshū, the family's holdings were moved to the Yanagawa Domain in the far north-east of Honshū in the Edo period.

The clan, which bore no direct relation to the Tachibana clan of the Heian period, originated with Ōtomo Sadatoshi (d. 1336), who took on the name and assigned it to the family of Ōtomo vassals who held Tachibana castle. For a time, the Tachibana served as loyal retainers under the Ōtomo clan, regularly battling the Shimazu, rivals to the Ōtomo. In the mid-16th century, a conflict between Ōtomo Akitoshi and Ōtomo Sōrin led to the former splitting from the family, and taking the name Tachibana Dōsetsu.

Dōsetsu had no sons, and nominated his daughter, Tachibana Ginchiyo, to succeed him. Shortly afterwards, she would marry Takahashi Munetora, a vassal of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who helped defeat the Shimazu in Hideyoshi's Kyūshū Campaign. Upon inheriting the clan leadership, Takahashi took a new name, and became known as Tachibana Muneshige.

Muneshige then fought for Hideyoshi in the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592-1598), and was granted the han (fief) of Yanagawa (Chikugo Province, 132,000 koku), the land surrounding Tachibana castle. He fought against the Tokugawa, however, during the decisive Battle of Sekigahara of 1600, and was dispossessed of his holdings when the Tokugawa shogunate was established.