The Koga family is a branch of the Minamoto clan

Minamoto clan

was one of the surnames bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the imperial family who were demoted into the ranks of the nobility. The practice was most prevalent during the Heian Period , although its last occurrence was during the Sengoku Era. The Taira were another such offshoot of...

 (descending from Emperor Murakami

Emperor Murakami

was the 62nd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.Murakami's reign spanned the years from 946 to his death in 967.-Traditional narrative:...

) of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. The Koga family was one of the kuge

Kuge

The was a Japanese aristocratic class that dominated the Japanese imperial court in Kyoto until the rise of the Shogunate in the 12th century at which point it was eclipsed by the daimyo...

 (court nobility) families, achieving the rank of seigake. During the Meiji Restoration

Meiji Restoration

The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

, the head of the Koga family was given the title of marquis (侯爵 kōshaku) as part of the kazoku

Kazoku

The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan that existed between 1869 and 1947.-Origins:Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the ancient court nobility of Kyoto regained some of its lost status...

, the hereditary peerage that combined the kuge

Kuge

The was a Japanese aristocratic class that dominated the Japanese imperial court in Kyoto until the rise of the Shogunate in the 12th century at which point it was eclipsed by the daimyo...

 and the daimyo

Daimyo

is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...

. One of the responsibilities of the Koga family was to be the protectors of the courtesan

Courtesan

A courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...

 guild

Guild

A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...

 at court.

The Kamon of the Koga is an artistic representation of the roxanne Autumn Bellflower (Gentiana scabra

Gentiana scabra

Gentiana scabra is a species of flowering plant in the Gentian family , found in much of the United states and Japan...

 var. buergeri). Famous Japanese actress Yoshiko Kuga

Yoshiko Kuga

is a Japanese actress.-Biography and personal life:Kuga was born in Tokyo, Japan. Her father, Michiaki Koga , was a marquis and a member of House of Peers....

 (born as Haruko Koga) was disowned by her grandfather for her career choice, but she was eventually accepted back into the family.

The kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

 characters of the name have the meanings: 久 (long time) 我 (I). "Koga" is the on'yomi (Sino-Japanese reading) of the kanji while "hisashī ware" would be the kun'yomi (native Japanese reading). But actually 久我 is the ateji

Ateji

In modern Japanese, primarily refers to kanji used phonetically to represent native or borrowed words, without regard to the meaning of the underlying characters. This is analogous to man'yōgana in pre-modern Japanese...

 (当て字; phonetic-equivalent cv characters) for 陸 (koga; an obsolete word for land). The family name has its origin that Minamoto no Masazane (:ja:源雅實), who was later considered as the originator of the Koga family, had a villa in Koga (today it belongs to Fushimi district, Kyoto City), and was called Koga-Daijō-Daijin. (Daijō-Daijin (:ja:太政大臣) means a kind of minister.) There is still a Shinto

Shinto

or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

 shrine named Koga jinja (久我神社) in Fushimi

Fushimi

Fushimi can refer to:*Emperor Fushimi of Japan*Fushimi, Kyoto, a ward of Kyoto City*Fushimi-no-miya, a branch of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 district, Kyoto City. The present master, Tomomichi Koga (久我誠通), is the owner of an art salon in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

.

External links

• Koga Kamon The Kamon
  Kamon
  Kamon may refer to:*Kamon , a Japanese heraldic symbol*Kamon, Israel, a village in northern Israel-See also:*Kimon, an Athenian politician and general...
  
  of the Koga family.