The Funabashi Family (舟橋家)
The Funabashi family are descendants of Imperial Prince Toneri, the son of the fourtieth emperor, Emperor Tenmu. They are toshoke (hereditary lineage of court nobles above a certain rank) and descendants of the Kiyohara family. It is also written as the Funabashi family.
The family status was hanke (a kind of family status of the Court nobles) (kuge - family of court nobles). The highest positions appointed were Shonii (Senior Second Rank), jiju (chamberlain), Shonagon (lesser councilor of state) and in Shikibusho (Ministry of Ceremonies). The family served as the emperor's jidoku (Imperial tutor) (tutor) for generations. The family profession was myogyodo (the study of Confucian classics).
Overview
The Kiyohara family (Funabashi family) served the Imperial Court for generations by way of myogyodo. Along with the Oshikoji family (the Nakahara line), who were the jige (low ranking nobles) of the Oshikoji family, they monopolized the hereditary appointment of myogyo hakase (Professor of Confucian classics) and Daijokan (Grand Council of State). Naritada KIYOHARA (Shosanmi - Senior Third Rank), Okura-kyo (Minister of the Treasury), Shonagon (1409 - 1467) from the Muromachi period became the first kugyo (court noble) from the Kiyohara clan. His adopted son, Nobukata KIYOHARA, Shosanmi, jiju, Shonagon (1457 - 1550), was the son of Kanetomo YOSHIDA, and he studied, organized and summarized the myogyodo.
Nobukata KIYOHARA's daughter served the Muromachi Shogun Yoshiharu ASHIKAGA, and she was the biological mother of Yusai HOSOKAWA of the Hosokawa clan. Furthermore, Ito (Christian name: Maria), a daughter of Nobukata's grandson, Shigekata FUNABASHI (Shosanmi, Kunaikyo [Minister of the Sovereign's Household], jiju, Shonagon) (1520 - 1590), served Gracia HOSOKAWA and helped her convert to Christianity.
There is a theory that says that Nagayasu HIRANO, one of the seven excellent military commanders in Hideyoshi's army at the battle of Shizugatake, was from a branch family (Nobukata's great grandson) of the Funabashi family.
Funabashi became the family name after the generation of Hidekata FUNABASHI (Jushiinojo - Junior Fourth Rank, Upper Grade), Shikibusho (Ministry of Ceremonies), myogyo hakase, a jidoku to Emperor Goyozei and Emperor Gomizunoo, and the son of Kunikata KIYOHARA (Jusanmi - Junior Third Rank, Okura-kyo, jiju, Shonagon) (1544 - 1615). The Fusehara family branched out of the Funabashi family.
Incidentally, the father-and-son pair from the end of the Edo period, Akikata FUNABASHI and Michikata FUNABASHI, joined the Teishin hachiju-hachi kyo ressan jiken (demonstration by the 88 retainers of the Imperial Court).
Their hereditary stipend during the Edo period was 400 koku. The family became a member of house of peers after the Meiji period and was given the status viscount.