Hojo Ujinao

• Birth: 1562
• Death: 1591
• Ruled: 1582-1590
• Title: Sakyō-dayu
• Japanese: 北條氏直

Birth and Early life

On December 19th, 1562, the end of the same year Oda Nobunaga first entered Kyoto, Kuniomaru was born as the first son of Hojo Ujimasa and Obai-in (the eldest daughter of Takeda Shingen). In his coming of age ceremony, his name changed to Hojo Ujinao.

Ujinao's First Campaigns

Before his assumption of the role of damiyo of the Hojo, Ujinao accompained Ujimasa during his campaign against the Takeda. The fighting between the two families was intermittent and yielded no result, until of course, Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu launched their invasion of the Takeda domain in 1582. This conquest ended with the death of Takeda Katsuyori who committed seppuku during the battle of Temmokuzan. Thus, the Hojo had the much more powerful Oda Clan at their borders, and the clans relationship was quickly turning hostile as an Oda general Takigawa Kazumasu made advances into Kozuke. Fortunate for the Hojo, Akechi Mitsuhide rebelled against Oda Nobunaga on June 21, 1582, trapping and killing his former commander at the Honnouji temple. Ujimasa and Ujinao seized this oppurtunity and defeated Kazumasu at the Battle of Kanagawa. Ujinao followed this up by capturing Oda territories in the Kanto region.

Ujinao, The 5th Odawara Hojo daimyo

After a dispute between the Hojo and Tokugawa concerning the ruler of the provinces of Shinano and Kai, the Tokugawa agreed to a truce, giving the Hojo part of Kai. Soon after tension ceased between these two clans, Ujinao even married Tokugawa Ieyasu's daughter Toku-hime in 1584. This was about the time Ujimasa stepped down as daimyo of the Hojo clan, Ujinao then took his father's former place, but in reality Ujimasa continued to rule his domain with his son. During the events after Honno-ji, Toyotomi Hideyoshi took over Akechi Mitsuhide's place as unifier of Japan by defeating him at Yamazaki. Hideyoshi had united everyone under his banner, including Tokugawa Ieyasu, except the Hojo. Tokugawa advised that the Hojo should submit to Hideyoshi, but this advice fell on deaf ears, and Hideyoshi began his siege of Odawara in 1590. Ujinao wished to attack Hideyoshi's 200,000 men on the field with his 50,000, but decided to use defensive strategys instead. After all, taking a defensive position inside the castle had put an end to earlier sieges made by the Uesugi and the Takeda, both of which had ran out of supplies. Unfortunate for the Hojo though, the Toyotomi were prepared and had an endless amount of supplies. Thus after three months of practically no fighting the Hojo surrendered.

Fall of the Hojo

After his successful siege, Hideyoshi made Ujimasa and his brother Hojo Ujiteru to commit seppuku. Ujimasa even wrote a death poem:

Ujimasa's death poem

Autumn wind of eve Blow away the clouds that mass O'er the moon's pure light And the mists that cloud our mind Do thou sleep away as well Now we disappear Well, what must we think of it? From the sky we came Now we may come back again Thats at least one point of view

Ujinao and his wife were spared though, and were exiled to Mt. Koya, south of Osaka. Ujinao was then moved to Kwatchi, where he is believed to have died of small pox. His wife Toku-hime, who never beared a child of Ujinao, was then arranged to be married to Ikeda Tadatsugu by Hideyoshi.

References

• Totman, Conrad. History of Japan
• Turnbull, Stephen The Samurai
• Turnbull, Stephen, Samurai Sourcebook
• Turnbull, Stephen. War in Japan 1467-1615(Essential Histories)