Akizuki clan

Akizuki clan; 秋月氏
	The Akizuki clan crest (mon)
Home province	Chikuzen
Current head	Akizuki Tanetaka (秋月種高)
Dissolution	Still extant

The Akizuki clan (秋月氏, Akizuki-shi) is a Japanese noble family. In the Sengoku period, the Akizuki clan was led by a samurai lord (大名 daimyō) in the Akizuki domain on the island of Kyūshū. From the Meiji period to the end of World War II, the Akizuki family was a contemporary noble (華族 "Kazoku"). After World War II, the land controlled by the Akizuki family became Akizuki prefecture. Later, Akizuki prefecture was re-organized as Fukuoka Prefecture (福岡県 Fukuoka-ken).

At present, the former Akizuki area is still referred to as "Akizuki", and is now Asakura, Fukuoka prefecture. The Akizuki clan's main descendants live in Ōita Prefecture and Tokyo.

Cultural references

Two ships have been named after the Akizuki clan: the Akizuki-class destroyer (1942) of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the Akizuki-class destroyer (1959) of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

The movie director Akira Kurosawa directed a movie about the Akizuki clan, called The Hidden Fortress (隠し砦の三悪人 Kakushi-toride-no-san-akunin), in 1958. In the film, the clan crest is depicted as a crescent. The Hidden Fortress was remade in 2008 by director Shinji Higuchi.

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