*wipes tears from eyes* Oh they grow up so fast. Sons who come of age automatically become generals. There is the small matter of a war with the Ito clan in the provinces of Osumi and Hyuga, but once these local difficulties are resolved the distance from Kyushu to the shogun’s palace is not so great after all.
Higo, however, is a tempting target for expansion because of the warhorses to be found there. Their home province of Satsuma is secure, and they are at peace with the Sagara of Higo province to the north. Now, under the daimyo Shimazu Takahisa, the clan has a chance for true greatness. They did not, however, become hidebound: when their vassals in Tanegashima met a strange, shipwrecked people from the other side of the world, the Shimazu were quick to see that trade with these "nanban" Europeans might be worthwhile. Thanks to a well-organised army and administration, abundant local resources, and a certain distance between Kyushu and the Kamakura court, the Shimazu clan became rich and powerful. The young man took the name of Shimazu in Hyuga province, his seat of government, as his own.
In 1187, Yoritomo appointed his son, Tadahisa, as military governor of southern Kyushu. The clan can trace its ancestry back to Minamoto Yoritomo, the founder and first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate. Shimazu katana samurai are cheaper to recruit and maintain in the field than those of other clans they can also recruit superior katana-armed samurai. To the Shimazu, loyalty is everything, and their generals are less likely to develop ambitions of their own. The Shimazu are a proud clan, with a long history worthy of their pride.
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