History Takeda Shingen's descendents?

[Takeda Shingen]

I'm trying to do a full family history of Takeda Shingen and was wondering whether there are any living descendants in Japan today. I know there were several branch families from Shingen's time, his being the head family, as we know. After the battle of Nagashino , Katsuyori, his wife, his son Nobukatsu and several maids of their retinue committed seppuku .

I'm hoping someone can give me any more information........

 

[GhostRider2]

Why exactly are you looking into this person? I have a number of Japanese relatives, not just a simple Caucasian looking for info on Japan as I have lived there for ten years as a youth / young teenager and go back routinely, so I might be some help. However, I also have deep respect for Japanese history and would like to know what exactly you are after.

 

[thomas]

I share your fascination with the Takeda clan ! Although this thread is old, I hope you found the information you were looking for.

Here are some additional thoughts:

The direct political power of the Takeda clan line ended with its destruction in 1582. However, some branches survived, and descendants are still believed to exist today. The Takeda were a large samurai house with many branch families. After the fall of the Kai Takeda under Takeda Katsuyori , some relatives, retainers, and collateral lines survived by entering the service of other daimyō families or by adopting different family names.

Although the main branch effectively ended, the Takeda clan itself was not completely extinguished. Several families claim descent from the Kai Takeda. During the Edo period , some descendants served the Tokugawa shogunate as hatamoto , direct retainers of the shogun . Today, Japanese genealogy groups and historical organisations still recognise several surviving Takeda descendant lines, although some claims cannot be proven with certainty.

Some Takeda-related families are:

• The Takeda family was formerly of hatamoto status under the Tokugawa shogunate. These were collateral descendants of the Kai Takeda who survived the demise of 1582 and later entered Tokugawa service. Some lines continued into the modern era, though often with reduced status and fragmented genealogies.
• The Nirasaki Takeda (韮崎武田氏) line in Yamanashi Prefecture. Various local genealogical groups and descendants around Nirasaki and Kōfu maintain traditions linking them to cadet branches of Takeda Shingen or to senior Takeda retainers who were absorbed into collateral lines after the clan's destruction.
• The descendants of Aki Takeda (安芸武田氏). The Aki Takeda branch, centred in western Japan before its destruction by the Mōri in the 16th century, descended from an older branch of the Takeda clan rather than from Shingen's Kai line specifically. Some descendants and claimed descendants survived into the Edo period.
• The Wakasa Takeda (若狭 武田 氏). This branch ruled Wakasa Province in the Muromachi period . Though politically extinguished, later families preserved genealogical traditions connecting themselves to the Wakasa Takeda.
• The Takeda family is associated with the martial tradition Takeda-ryū (武田流). Some modern heads of martial schools claim descent from Takeda cadet branches, though historians doubt these claims.
• Descendants connected to Takeda Kuniyoshi and the Takeda Jinja priestly lineage in Kofu. After the establishment of Takeda Shrine in 1919, some families associated with the shrine and local preservation societies became prominent custodians of Takeda clan memory and genealogy.
• The Takeda-no-miya (竹田宮) imperial branch. This is often confused with Shingen's family. The house descended from the imperial family, not directly from the Sengoku Takeda of Kai, though both traced distant ancestry to the Seiwa Genji (清和源氏). Modern public figures such as Takeda Tsuneyasu belong to this imperial-derived line.

Several families in Yamanashi Prefecture, Nagano Prefecture , and Shizuoka Prefecture still preserve traditions or family genealogies claiming descent from Takeda retainers linked to branches such as the Sanada, Baba, Obata, or Yamagata families. In many cases, however, it is difficult to separate documented history from later claims. Many records were lost after the fall of the Takeda clan, while Edo-period genealogies often exaggerated family origins. Adoption through mukoyōshi (婿養子) and family name changes also made family lines harder to trace clearly.