This Takehara-Kobayakawa clan was a branch of the Kobayakawa clan but since the Genko War, they fought under Takauji ASHIKAGA and contributed to the establishment of the Muromachi Bakufu (Shogunate); they gradually increased their power and by the mid-Muromachi period, they were competing against the Nuta-Kobayakawa clan, the head family.
この竹原小早川家は小早川氏の分家筋にあたるが、元弘の乱以降、足利高氏の下で戦い、室町幕府成立に貢献したこともあり、徐々に勢力を拡大し、室町時代中期には本家・沼田小早川家と拮抗するまでに至る。