The Jimyoin Family (持明院家)
The Jimyoin family was a Japanese clan (court nobles). They were from the FUJIWARA no Yorimune line (Nakamikado Line) of the Northern House of the Fujiwara clan. The Kakaku (family status) was the House of Urin (holding military rank). Calligraphy, Kagura (sacred music and dancing performed at shrines) and Takajo (a hawker) were their family businesses. The family crest is Gyoyo.
This family was founded in the end of the Heian period with FUJIWARA no Motoyori (Yorimune's grandson) as the originator. Motoyori named the Jibutsu-do hall (the nobility's private Buddha statue hall) in his site Jimyoin, which later became the family name. Chinshi JIMYOIN (Kitashirakawa-in), the daughter of Motoie JIMYOIN, married Gotakakura-in and bore Emperor Gohorikawa, and thereafter Jimyoin was used as the Sento Imperial Palace of Gotakakura-in and Gohorikawa. As it later became the Sento Imperial Palace of Emperor Gofukakusa and his posterity, this emperor's family line was called the Jimyoin Line.
During the Sengoku period (period of warring states), the Sesonji family (famous for Nosho - excellent calligraphy) ended, so Motoharu JIMYOIN, a disciple of Yukitaka SESONJI, worked as a cleric in the Imperial Court, and since then the family served as the head family for the initiation of calligraphy. They also conducted Kagura and Takajo as their family business. Because Motohisa JIMYOIN fought on the Hideyori TOYOTOMI side and died in 1615 during the Sieges of Ozaka, the family faced the danger of extinction, but a distant relative, Motosada JIMYOIN (son of Motoie OSAWA, a vassal of the Tokugawa clan) succeeded the family line. Their Karoku (hereditary stipend) was 200 koku during the Edo period. In 1884 基哲 JIMYOIN was bestowed the title of Viscount.
Motouji SONO, the son of Motoyori, became the originator of the Sono family. Motosada's son, Yasuharu TAKANO became the originator of the Takano family. There are other Tosho (high court nobility) branches, the Ishino, Higashisono, Mibu, Ishiyama, and Rokkaku families. The Ichijo family (Nakamikado-ryu - the Nakamikado line) who had strong influence on the Imperial Court as a relative of MINAMOTO no Yoritomo (later extinguished) and the Osawa clan, a Koke (privileged family under the Tokugawa Shogunate), were also from the Jimyoin family line.