Arima Clan

The Arima clan (有馬氏 Arima-shi) was a samurai clan of medieval Japan during the Sengoku era.

Arima Clan History

The main Arima clan was also known as the Hizen-Arima clan (肥前有馬氏 Hizen-Arima-shi), after its province of origin. This clan boasts descent from Fujiwara Sumitomo (...-941 AD), who settled in Iyo province after the Tengyō no Ran war.

During the late Muromachi period, Arima Haruzumi became a valuable servant of the Ashikaga shogunate and controlled the Shimabara peninsula north of Kyūshū, thus controlling trade between Japan and Portugal.

During the Sengoku period his descendant Arima Harunobu allied himself with the Shimazu clan of Kagoshima against the Ryūzōji clan at the Battle of Okitanawate. Soon after, Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Kyushu and the Arima immediately joined him, which allowed the clan to maintain its dominions.

However, after the beginning of the Edo period, Arima Harunobu lost favor after the events of the Okamoto Daihachi incident, and was relieved of his duties and even sentenced to death by Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Although his son, Arima Naozumi, was married to an adopted daughter of Ieyasu at the beginning of the suppression of the Kirishitan (Christians), he was transferred from Shimabara to Nobeoka Castle (53,000 koku) in Hyūga Province in 1614.

During the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637-1638, he led an army of 4,000 men against the Kirishitan rebels, many of whom were former Arima vassals.

In 1692, Arima Kiyozumi was transferred (and demoted) from Nobeoka Castle to Itoigawa Castle (50,000 koku) in Echigo Province given the poor management of the domains, from which a peasant revolt ensued.

Although he had a kokudaka almost equal to Nobeoka, Itoigawa had less prestige, as he was not allowed to hold a castle. In 1695 he was again transferred to Maruoka Castle in Echizen Province, in which he had the castle he desired.

The Arima clan remained master of Maruoka Castle until the Meiji Restoration and the abolition of the Han system in 1871.

The last daimyō of Maruoka, Arima Michizumi, served as jisha-bugyō, wakadoshiyori, and rōjū in the Bakumatsu period of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and became a viscount under the kazoku system of the Meiji period.

Known members

• Arima Haruzumi
• Arima Yoshisada
• Arima Harunobu
• Arima Naozumi
• Arima Kiyozumi
• Arima Michizumi

Murakami-Genji Arima Clan

The clan, unrelated to the one marked above, holds a lineage from the Akamatsu clan and the Murakami-Genji clan.

Known members

• Arima Noriyori (...-1602)
• Arima Toyouji (1570-1642)