He subsequently seized power as the first shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan during the Edo period until the Meiji Restoration of 1868.

After the Meiji Restoration and the abolition of the han system, the Tokugawa and Matsudaira clans became part of the new kazoku nobility.

A number of locations associated with the early history of the clan were collectively designated a National Historic Site of Japan in the year 2000.

Before the Edo period, there were 19 major branches of the Matsudaira clan: Takenoya (竹谷), Katanohara (形原),[4] Ōgusa (大草), Nagasawa (長沢),[5] Nōmi (能見),[6] Goi (五井), Fukōzu (深溝), Ogyū (大給),[7] Takiwaki (滝脇),[8] Fukama (福釜), Sakurai (桜井), Tōjō (東条), Fujii (藤井),[9] Mitsugi (三木), Iwatsu (岩津), Nishi-Fukama (西福釜), Yata (矢田), Udono (鵜殿), and Kaga (加賀).

It was the main Matsudaira line residing in Okazaki Castle which rose the highest during the Sengoku period.

Though the Yūki-Matsudaira retained control of Kitanoshō (later renamed Fukui), the main Yūki line was not there, but in Tsuyama instead.

Branches of the family ruled the Fukui, Hirose, Mori, Matsue, Tsuyama, Akashi, Itoigawa, and Maebashi domains.

Matsudaira Yoshinaga in particular was very important to Japanese politics of the early Meiji period, and his leadership put the Fukui Domain on the side of the victors in the Boshin War (1868–69).

[24] The Ochi-Matsudaira clan was founded by Matsudaira Kiyotake, the younger brother of the 6th shōgun Tokugawa Ienobu.

In the Meiji era, Takeakira's son Matsudaira (Ochi) Takenaga received the title of viscount.

Masayuki, a son of the second shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada, was adopted by Hoshina Masamitsu, the lord of the Takatō Domain.

The family remained prominent in shogunate affairs and in security duty in Ezo (Hokkaido).

It also sponsored several schools of martial arts, as well as working to develop and spread the production of local crafts.

In the Bakumatsu period, the 8th lord Matsudaira Katataka assisted with security duties during and after the arrival of the Perry Expedition; Katataka's successor, 9th lord Matsudaira Katamori served as Kyoto Shugoshoku, but his clan was later defeated in the Boshin War.

[24] Katamori's son Morio Matsudaira served as an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy.