The Matsura clan, also spelled Matsuura, was a medieval and early modern Japanese samurai family who ruled Hirado Domain in Hizen Province on the island of Kyushu. They started as a group of military families under the name Matsura-to. They were involved in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Kyushu campaign and the Japanese invasions of Korea. Around 1590, they built their seat, Hirado Castle. In 1871, the Meiji Restoration dissolved Japan's feudal lords, and the clan's final daimyo, Matsura Akira, was put into the kazoku class.
Hirado Castle, the clan's seat in Hizen Province
Hirado Domain (平戸藩), also known as Hirado-han, was a domain during the Edo period in Japan. It was located in Hizen Province, which is now part of Nagasaki Prefecture. The han system in Hirado was a political and economic concept that relied on surveys and projected agricultural yields, rather than land area, to define the domain. This system was distinct from the feudalism of the Western world.
A 16th-century French depiction of Hirado Castle
Keep of Hirado Castle
Hirado Castle stands on an island off Kyūshū
Matsuura Akira, final daimyo of Hirado Domain