Clan Erizawa

History

The Erizawa Clan has held nominal control over the town of Karatsu, its surrounding waterways, and some of its inland area for well over a century. Distant Taira relatives, the Erizawa Clan is ancestrally at odds with the Minamoto Clan. Although never major players, members of the Erizawa Clan perished at Dan-no-ura, the naval battle that ended the Taira Clan and the Genpai War and established the Minamoto Clan as the Kamakura Shongunate. The Erizawa gave nominal allegiance to Emperor Go-Toba in the Jōkyū War, but once again the Minamoto and their Hōjō regents retained power. The Erizawa Clan maintains a small but effective military force and can summon over four hundred peasant levies if necessary. A small handful of young samurai pledge their swords to the clan, and their de facto leader, Shozo Erizawa, is an excellent warrior and sound tactician. While many of the former Taira allies have been replaced in Kyūshū, the Erizawa and a handful of others have retained power. What little politicking the Erizawa Clan can do is limited to maintaining some level of influence in the Dazaifu government and pleasing the shogunate to smooth over their past indiscretions. The wealth of Karatsu has allowed them to continue on, as they take a sizable portion of taxes from Chinese and Korean merchants and see goods and people flow through their town. With the death of Tokutomi Erizawa, the new head of the clan and ruler of Karatsu, Tokimasa Erizawa, has tried to be slightly more lenient on taxes, hoping that more volume of trade will overcome the deficit of a lower tax base, as well as take away incentives for smugglers. The Erizawa Clan maintains ties with some other minor clans that once owed fealty to the Taira, including the neighboring Sugawara and the Kasai inland. However, they have been forced to capitulate several times to the ruling Shōni Clan, the neighboring Hoshino of Chikuzen, and the Shimazu Clan, newly ensconced direct descendants of the Minamoto Clan. Recent marriages have placed the Erizawas more in the camp of Minamoto loyalists, and a proposal of heir Tokijiro Erizawa to Yushiko Shimazu looks to cement the clan to the shogunate.