The group has the lineage of Hatamoto (direct retainer of the shogun), since Sadanobu KATAGIRI (Tsuruchiyo in childhood) who was the oldest son of Sadamasa KATAGIRI, the founder of the school, was appointed to Hatamoto of 1,000 koku (approximately 180 thousand liters of crop yield) and called himself Nobutaka SHIMOJO, and had been inherited to the seventh head, Soen KATAGIRI, from father to only one child.
流祖片桐貞昌（貞昌）の長男片桐貞信（幼名鶴千代）が1000石の旗本に取り立てられ、下條を称し名を下條信隆にあらためておこした旗本の家系で七世片桐宗猿まで一子相伝で伝承される。