HōjōLater Hōjō
Hōjō Ujimasa
北条氏政
1538–1590 (aged 53)
- Rank / office
- Sakyō-no-daibu / Governor of Sagami
- Domain / base
- Sagami (Odawara Castle)
- Banner / crest
- Three scales
- Battles in 3D
- 1 battle
Portrait · Source: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
The moon veiled by rain clouds, the mist within my breast: the autumn evening wind has swept them all away.
Death poem of Hōjō Ujimasa
Second son of Hōjō Ujiyasu, he became heir when his elder brother died young and succeeded as fourth head of the Later Hōjō. Alternating war and peace with the Takeda and Uesugi, he extended Hōjō power across the Kantō. Even after handing the headship to his heir Ujinao in Tenshō 8 he kept real power as the "Retired Lord," and after the Honnō-ji Incident he and Ujinao beat Takigawa Kazumasu at the Kanna River and took Kōzuke, bringing the Later Hōjō domain to its greatest extent, said to have reached 2.4 million koku. But he did not answer Toyotomi Hideyoshi's summons to the capital, and the Nagurumi Castle incident brought on the Odawara campaign of Tenshō 18. He held out in Odawara Castle for more than three months, but the castle was surrendered in the seventh month; bearing the blame as leader of the war party, he took his own life with his younger brother Ujiteru. The story of the "soup on rice," in which his father Ujiyasu despaired of the Hōjō future on seeing that Ujimasa could not judge how much soup to pour over his rice, is famous, but is thought to be a later invention.
Life and battlesGold dots mark battles you can watch in 3D
- 1559Eiroku 2
Succession
Became fourth head of the Later Hōjō on the retirement of his father Ujiyasu.
- 1580Tenshō 8
Retirement
Handed the headship to his heir Ujinao but kept real power as the "Retired Lord."
- 1582Tenshō 10
Battle of Kannagawa
After the Honnō-ji Incident he beat Takigawa Kazumasu, took Kōzuke and brought the Hōjō domain to its greatest extent.
- 1590Tenshō 18
Surrender of Odawara; Death
After more than three months under siege by Hideyoshi's great army the castle was surrendered, and he took his own life with his brother Ujiteru.
Siege of Odawara 10,000 troops Watch in 3D › Ujinao's father, who still steered the Hōjō after his retirement. He built the largest domain in the Kantō but refused to the end to submit to Hideyoshi, and after the castle opened took his own life with his brother Ujiteru.
