The was a Japanese samurai clan who ruled the northern Hamadōri region of southern Mutsu Province in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan for over 700 years, from the Kamakura period through the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The Sōma claimed descent from the Taira clan via the Chiba clan and took their name from the Chiba clan territories in Sōma District of northern Shimōsa Province. The clan moved its seat from Shimōsa to Mutsu Province in the early Kamakura period, and were confirmed as daimyō of Sōma Nakamura Domain under the Edo-period Tokugawa shogunate. During the Boshin War of 1868–69, the Sōma clan fought on the site of the Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei, supporting the Tokugawa regime. After Meiji Restoration, the head of the Sōma clan became part of the kazoku peerage, with Sōma Aritane receiving the title of shishaku (Viscount). Origins Sōma Morotsune was the younger son of Chiba Tsunetane, and with his father was a samurai in the service of Minamoto no Yoritomo. He took his name from the Sōma Mikuriya, a shōen controlled by Ise Shrine in what is now northwest Chiba Prefecture, which supplied horses to the shrine and the Imperial household. He accompanied Yoritomo in the conquest of the Hiraizumi Fujiwara in 1189, and was awarded with estates covering three districts in southern Mutsu: Namekata, Shineha, and Uda. During the Nanboku-chō period following the fall of the Kamakura shogunate the Sōma were one of the few clans in Mutsu to remain loyal to the Northern Court. Sengoku period Although the Sōma were a minor regional power, their territory was sandwiched between the much more powerful Satake clan to the south and the Date clan to the north. The Date under Date Masamune were especially aggressive and expansionist, and despite efforts by the 16th hereditary chieftain Sōma Yoshitane to remain aloof of the conflicts of the Sengoku period, the Date invaded his domain on 30 occasions. Both Sōma Yoshitane and Date Masamune submitted to Toyotomi Hideyoshi at the Siege of Odawara. At the time of the Battle of Sekigahara, the Sōma attempted to remain neutral for fear of the powerful Satake clan to the south, which was allied with Ishida Mitsunari through marriage ties. The new Tokugawa shogunate initially decided to seize the Sōma territories, but through the intervention of several senior retainers (including their former arch-enemy Data Masamune), the shogunate relented and appointed Sōma Toshitane as