Gosanke

Later, Gosanke were deprived of their role to provide a shōgun by three other branches that are closer to the shogunal house: the Gosankyō.

Even after the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate and the abolition of the Edo-period system of administrative domains (han) the three houses continued to exist in some form, as they do into the 21st century.

After he established his shogunate, Ieyasu proceeded to put members of his family in key positions.

Ieyasu gave them the right to supply a shōgun in order to ensure the presence of successors to the Tokugawa shogunate in case the main line should become extinct.

Before the abolition of the shogunate and of the han system, the house was headed successively by 17 men.

Fourteen members of the Tokugawa clan headed the fief during the Edo Period.

[3] Eleven men headed the house, including Tokugawa (Mito) Mitsukuni.

[2] He presently works for Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd.[2] A Tokyo resident, he commutes to Mito on weekends.

The "8-bit gosanke", similarly to the "1977 trinity" in America, refers to the leading Japanese machines in the early home computing era.