The Ina Clan (伊奈氏)
The Ina clan was one of the Japanese shizoku (clans, or samurai families). It was in the Ashikaga lineage of the MINAMOTO no Yorikuni line of Seiwa-Genji (the Minamoto clan) (heresies are acknowledged). The family crest is 左頭二つ巴, or Kenumebachi.
The Ina clan was said to be a branch family of the Togasaki clan, which was a branch of the Ashikaga clan. Although the family first referred to itself as the Arakawa clan, Yasutsugu INA, a grandson of Yasuuji ARAKAWA who had been given a part of Ina County, Shinano Province, by the Seii taishogun (literally, "great general who subdues the barbarians") Yoshihisa ASHIKAGA, called himself Kumazo INA. Yasutsugu, having been defeated in a territorial dispute against his uncle Yasumasa and stripped of his residential castle, moved to Mikawa Province and became a vassal of the Matsudaira clan. Tadamoto INA, Yasutsugu's son, served Hirotada MATSUDAIRA and his son Ieyasu TOKUGAWA, residing at Kojima-jo Castle in Mikawa Province (the present-day Nishio City, Aichi Prefecture).
The lineage of Sadamasa INA, Tadamoto's legitimate son, ended at the time of Akitsuna INA. In the lineage of Tadaie INA, the other son of Tadamoto, Tadatsugu INA, served Ieyasu TOKUGAWA. When Ieyasu entered the Kanto region, Tadatsugu followed him to become daikangashira (head of Edo-period prefectural governorship (magistrate, bailiff)), the predecessor of Kanto gundai (a magistrate of the Kanto region), playing a leading role in Tokugawa's rule of their Kanto territory. Subsequently, Tadatsugu, as a fudai daimyo (a daimyo as hereditary vassal to the Tokugawa family) became the first lord of the Musashikomuro Domain, with his eldest son Tadamasa INA inherited as the second lord. However, the third lord, Tadakatsu INA, was deprived of his territory because he had no heir. The lineage of Tadaharu INA, the second son of Tadatsugu, became a hatamoto (a direct retainer of the shogun) family, inheriting the post of Kanto gundai for generations.
The Origin of the Ina Clan
Although the Ina clan is generally regarded as a branch family of the Ashikaga clan, as mentioned above, it was described as the Fujiwara clan in "Kansei Choshu Shokafu" (a record of the family trees of samurai warriors of the Edo bakufu). Another theory is that the Ina clan was from the MINAMOTO no Mitsuyoshi line of Seiwa-Genji (Minamoto clan) or were descendants of MINAMOTO no Tametomo, a great-grandson of Mitsuyoshi.