The Sagara Clan (相良氏 Sagara-shi?) was a samurai clan of medieval Japan in Higo Province.
The Sagara family was, during the Edo period, a tozama daimyō clan that ruled the Hitoyoshi han in Higo province for about 700 years. The domain boasted a kokudaka of 22,000 koku.
The Sagara originally descended from the Fujiwara clan and are believed to have taken their name from the manor (shoen) they held at Sagara in the Haibara district of Tōtōmi province during the Kamakura period. In 1198, the year before his death, Minamoto no Yoritomo granted the territory of Hitoyoshi (Kyūshū) to the Sagara family.
Hitoyoshi is surrounded by mountains in all directions, making it fairly easily defensible and allowing the Sagara to survive attacks from neighboring clans during the Sengoku period. Together with the Itō, Hishikari, Shibuya and other smaller clans, it put up a strenuous resistance to the expansionism of the Shimazu clan, which around 1585 had almost conquered the entire Kyūshū.
Sagara Yorifusa initially fought alongside the Western army (against Tokugawa Ieyasu) in the Battle of Sekigahara, but secretly sent an envoy to Ieyasu declaring his loyalty. When Ieyasu's troops besieged Ōgaki Castle in Nagoya, he opened the gates to the attacking forces, thus gaining a pardon after the Tokugawa victory. After taking part during the siege of Osaka in the Tokugawa coalition, he gained an excellent reputation for his clan.