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The Niwa-shi was a Japanese clan of northern Honshū that claimed descent from Emperor Kanmu via Prince Yoshimine no Yasuo (785-80) and Kodama Koreyuki (d.1069).Edmond Papinot. (1906). Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon; Papinot, (2003). "Niwa," Nobiliare du Japon, p. 43; retrieved 2013-5-5.
However, after Niwa Nagahide died in 1585, the clan's fortunes under Niwa Nagashige fell with equal rapidity. During the Siege of Toyama against the forces of Sassa Narimasa, Hideyoshi accused the Niwa clan with collaboration, and seized most of their territories, leaving the clan with only Wakasa Province at 150,000 koku. During the subsequent Kyūshū Campaign in 1589, one of the Niwa clan retainers was again accused of collaboration with the enemy, and the clan was reduced further to a small 40,000 koku holding around Komatsu in Kaga Province. However, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was mercurial in his moods, and in response to Niwa Nagashige's efforts at the Siege of Odawara, his status was brought back to 120,000 koku.
In 1600, the Niwa clan sided with Ishida Mitsunari's Western Army against the Tokugawa clan at the Battle of Sekigahara and was thus dispossessed. The victorious Tokugawa Ieyasu chose to be magnanimous, and with the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, awarded Niwa Nagashige with a 10,000 koku domain in Hitachi Province. Nagashige's forces fought well at the 1614 Siege of Osaka, and in 1619 his revenues were increased to 20,000 koku, and in 1622 he was transferred to the 50,000 koku Tanakura Domain in Mutsu Province. In 1627, he was transferred once again to Shirakawa Domain, at 100,700 koku.
In 1643, Nagashige's son, Niwa Mitsushige, as transferred to Nihonmatsu Domain (100,700 koku), where the clan remained until the Meiji restoration. During the Boshin War, Niwa Nagakuni joined the Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei in 1868; however, his forces were defeated by the Satchō Alliance and Nihonmatsu Castle was burned. The victorious Meiji government reduced the domain to 50,700 koku under the final daimyō Niwa Nagahiro, who subsequently served as imperial governor until the abolition of the han system in 1871. In 1884, he became a viscount ( shishaku) under the kazoku peerage system.
Another clan, the Isshiki-Niwa, who were daimyō of Mikusa Domain (10,000 koku) in Harima Province from 1746 to 1871, bears the same Niwa but is not directly related to the above.
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