was one of the most powerful and important families in Western Japan during the reign of the Ashikaga shogunate in the 14th to 16th centuries. Their domains, ruled from the castle town of Yamaguchi in the western tip of Honshu island, comprised six provinces at their height, and the à Âuchi played a major role in supporting the Ashikaga in the Nanboku-cho Wars against the Southern Imperial Court. The à Âuchi remained powerful up until the 1550s, when they were eclipsed by their former vassals, the Mà Âri clan.
The genealogical record specifies that the à Âuchi clan were descended from a prince of the royal house of Paekche, who immigrated to Japan in the 7th century. According to the à Âuchi Tatarashi fuchà  and the à Âuchi-shi Jitsruroku, Prince Imseong is their first ancestor.
In modern times, books such as the à Âuchi-shi Jitsruroku (大å æ°Âå®Âé²), a work of the historian (è¿Âè¤渠ç³, 1833âÂÂ1916), adopted this narrative. However recently, some scholars dispute this circumstance and point to traditions that might seem contradictory to each other. Despite the scrutiny, modern day members of the à Âuchi clan state that there is no dispute, and that they strongly identify with Paekche (Korea).
In other instances, the clan is believed to have descended from the Tatara clan, a Toraijin clan that arrived from the Kaya confederacy during the Kofun period according to the Shinsen Shà Âjiroku. Some scholars suspect that the inclusion of this claim hints at a possible Kaya-related root rather than Paekche and may possibly be the reason why the clan had a close kinship with the Sue clan (the clan of Sue Harukata), another family with Tatara roots which ultimately became à Âuchi's downfall. However, a consensus is yet to be reached with the only concrete evidence alluding to a Korean origin.
Based in Suà  Province, towards the western end of Honshà «, the à Âuchi were among the primary families to be involved in foreign trade and relations, particularly with the Joseon dynasty of Korea, and Ming dynasty of China.
Historically the à Âuchi clan emphasized their Korean heritage along with their Japanese identity to establish economic power based on international trade and wield political power. According to Korean records, the clan was officially called the "Daenae clan (大å æ°Â; ëÂÂë´ì¨)" and called the head of the clan "Daenaejeon (大堧殿; ëÂÂë´ì Â)", a direct translation of "à Âuchi-tono (大å 殿; ãÂÂãÂÂãÂÂã¡ã¨ã®)" meaning "Lord à Âuchi", using the pronunciation of the clan's Chinese characters, and was treated as a Korean diaspora to the Joseon government. To secure its influence over Korea, the à Âuchi clan fought with other neighboring clans in the region of Chà «goku and Kyushu, such as the Sà  clan of Tsushima, who themselves were also of Korean descent (through the Koremune clan and thus the Hata clan) and sought to become the sole trading partner with Joseon. In the 15th century, the à Âuchi clan was able to remove the Sà  clan from Kyushu and become an integral trading partner with Korea.
The clan is thought to have utilized its heritage as a leverage to request lands and treasures from Korea at the time. According to the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, there were hundreds of official visits from the clan to Korea. In one instance, à Âuchi Yoshihiro officially requested the Joseon government to certify the clan's genealogy in order to verify if they were indeed of Prince Imseong descent in 1399. The request came with the rights for a fief within the lands of Korea. According to the records, the request span from the reigns of King Jeongjong to King Danjong, where the latter almost considered it much to the outcry from his imperial court. Due to multiple rejections, the request for a fief was later curtailed to simply "adding the à Âuchi name into the genealogy" which was granted. In another instance, the clan requested the Tripitaka Koreana, the oldest intact version of Buddhist canon in Chinese characters in history, under the assumption that Korea was no longer a Buddhist nation due to its "Anti-Buddhist policy" or " (æÂÂä½Âæ¿çÂÂ)" and pro-Confucianist ideology. The Tripitaka was considered as a sacred relic of Buddhism to Japan which unlike Joseon, was still a Buddhist nation, and most likely provided religious dominance if such items were possessed by a Japanese clan. It is believed that the à Âuchi tried obtaining the scriptures by using their heritage as a leverage. King Sejong, someone who was a heavy believer in Confucianism, considered granting the request due to his lack of interest in Buddhism and the never-ending demand from the clan, but was again met with the outcry from his court and ultimately declined. Instead, the government provided books that were created from the Tripitaka (which contained 52,330,152 characters in total) to give as gifts to envoys who sought knowledge from the Tripitaka itself.
The clan sought for trade with China as well. Following the à Ânin War (1467âÂÂ1477), a strong rivalry developed between the à Âuchi and the Hosokawa family, who were then in power. The two clashed at Ningbo in 1523, and as a result the Chinese closed Ningbo to Japanese traders. After the incident, the à Âuchi ships were only allowed to trade in China in 1540 and 1549. The à Âuchi also housed the Portuguese Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier for a time in 1551. As a result of their wealth and trading contacts, the à Âuchi gained renown in the worlds of art and culture as well. They possessed countless items of cultural and artistic significance and beauty, from Japan and China, as well as from further abroad. Particularly famous was the invitation by à Âuchi Masahiro of the famous painter Sesshà « to Yamaguchi in 1486.
In 1551, the daimyà  à Âuchi Yoshitaka tried to move Emperor Go-Nara and his court from war-torn Kyoto to Yamaguchi. But the à Âuchi's chief military vassals opposed this plan, fearing that imperial courtiers would displace them. This led to the Tainei-ji incident, in which Yoshitaka was forced to commit suicide. Sue Harukata of the Sue clan (a lateral branch of the à Âuchi clan), also the leader of the rebellion, installed à Âuchi Yoshinaga as a puppet clan chief. Despite being the newly appointed head of the à Âuchi clan, Yoshinaga was actually the younger brother of long-time à Âuchi rival à Âtomo Sà Ârin. This ended the à Âuchi line proper.
In 1555, Mà Âri Motonari, another former vassal of Yoshitaka, defeated Sue Harukata in the Battle of Miyajima. Two years later, Yoshinaga committed suicide, ending the à Âuchi clan.