Hōjō Ujitsuna
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was a Japanese
samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
lord of the
Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...
. He was the son of
Hōjō Sōun , also known as , was a Japanese ''daimyo'' and the first head of the Later Hōjō clan, one of the major powers in Japan's Sengoku period. Although he only belonged to a side branch of the more prestigious Ise family, he fought his way up, gainin ...
, the founder of the Go-Hōjō clan. He continued his father's quest to gain control of Kantō (the region around present-day
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
).


Biography

In 1524, Ujitsuna took
Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established th ...
, which was controlled by
Uesugi Tomooki was a lord of Edo Castle and enemy of the Hōjō clan, who seized the castle in 1524. He was the son of Uesugi Tomoyoshi, who was among the first to oppose the Hōjō's rise to power. Biography In 1516, Tomooki took part in the siege of Arai ...
, thus beginning a long-running rivalry between the Hōjō and Uesugi families. In 1526, Hojo Ujitsuna was defeated by
Takeda Nobutora was a Japanese ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) who controlled the Province of Kai, and fought in a number of battles of the Sengoku period. He was the father and predecessor of the famous Takeda Shingen. Biography Nobutora’s son was Harunobu, la ...
in the Battle of Nashinokidaira. Later, the Uesugi attacked and burned
Tsurugaoka Hachimangū is the most important Shinto shrine in the city of Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The shrine is a cultural center of the city of Kamakura and serves as the venue of many of its most important festivals with two museum ...
in
Kamakura , officially , is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per km2 over the tota ...
, which was a major loss to the Hōjō symbolically, because the earlier
Hōjō clan The was a Japanese samurai family who controlled the hereditary title of '' shikken'' (regent) of the Kamakura shogunate between 1203 and 1333. Despite the title, in practice the family wielded actual political power in Japan during this perio ...
from which they took their name fell in the
Siege of Kamakura (1333) The 1333 siege of Kamakura was a battle of the Genkō War, and marked the end of the power of the Hōjō clan, which had dominated the regency of the Kamakura shogunate for over a century. Forces loyal to Emperor Go-Daigo and led by Nitta Yoshi ...
. (Ujitsuna soon started rebuilding Tsurugaoka Hachimangū and was completed in 1540.) In 1530, his son Ujiyasu defeated Uesugi Tomooki in the Battle of Ozawahara. The Uesugi attacked Edo again in 1535, when Ujitsuna was away fighting the
Takeda is a Japanese name, Japanese family name.1990 Census Name Files