The Kutsuki were a branch of the Sasaki family hailing from Omi Province. They served as the stewards of the Kutsuki manor in that province in the Kamakura period, and the house continued through the Warring States period and into the Edo period, when some of their members became bannermen (direct vassals of the shogun) or daimyo (provincial lords). "The archives of Kutsuki family" consist of historical documents passed down in the family through the years. The Cabinet Records Bureau purchased them from the Kutsuki in 1888. Containing more than 1,060 documents, the archives were designated an important cultural property in the first year of Heisei( 1989).
Sodehan mikosho of Ashikaga Yoshiaki (1537-97. the 15th shogun of the Muromachi Bakufu, son of Yoshiharu) dated October 14 in the 11th year of Eiroku (1568), guaranteeing the succession of the land of family name (Kutsuki, present day Takashima City) in Takashima-gun of Ohmi Province to Kutsuki Yagoro Mototsuna, as in the case of his grandfather, Tanetsuna. Mikyosho is a document issued by a vassal of court nobles of the third rank and higher or Shogun, in a format of Hosho(a document used for informing a decision of the upper ranked personages), upon direct orders from the nobles or Shogun.