The Matsura clan, also spelled Matsuura, was a medieval and early modern Japanese samurai family who ruled Hirado Domain in Hizen Province on the island of Kyushu.

In 1871, the Meiji Restoration dissolved Japan's feudal lords, and the clan's final daimyo, Matsura Akira, was put into the kazoku class.

The Matsura-to, or the Matsuura-to, was a group of petty military families that had roots in the 11th century in Hizen Province on the island of Kyushu.

[5] In the 1440s and 1450s, Korea attempted to make peace with the Matsura by issuing them ceremonial copper seals, given to those in maritime affairs that the Koreans had a "favored status" for.

By 1557, after Padre Gaspar Vilela baptized multiple people in the Hirado domain of Takanobu's vassal, Dom Antonio Koteda Yatsutsune.

In 1565, the Portuguese listened when the Jesuits warned Captain-Major Dom João Pereira, with his Great Ship and his companion galiot, to steer over to the domain of the Christian daimyo[12] Omura Sumitada in Fukuda.

Takanobu conspired with Sakai merchants to mobilize a fleet of eighty vessels with the goal of seizing the Portuguese ships and goods.

In the Battle of Fukuda Bay,[13] the galiot's artillery drove Takanobu's forces off, "inflicting severe casualties on the attackers and demonstrating the superiority of Western weapons.

"[14] In the late 1560s, the Ouchi in northern Kyushu fell, and their territory was fought for by the rivaling forces of Otomo Sorin and Mori Motonari.

[1][16] Despite Toyotomi's anti-Christian edict, Shigenobu allowed Christianity into his family, when he arranged the marriage between his son Hisanobu, and the daughter of Omura Sumitada.

The Christians, Shigenobu's daughter-in-law included, believed that entering a Buddhist temple and taking part in a pagan funeral would compromise their beliefs.