Hōjō Ujinao

Hōjō Ujinao (1562–1591) was the fifth head of the Later Hōjō clan (Odawara Hōjō house), based at Odawara in Sagami Province (present-day Kanagawa Prefecture), and as a Sengoku daimyō he ruled over the Kantō region. Even after he succeeded to the headship in Tenshō 8 (1580), he governed in a dual rule alongside his father, Hōjō Ujimasa. He was the last head of the Hōjō family, which had controlled the Kantō for about a century until the Odawara campaign of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Tenshō 18 (1590). After the surrender he was exiled to Mount Kōya, and he died the following year at the age of 30.

Ujinao was born in Eiroku 5 (1562) as the second son of Hōjō Ujimasa, and because his elder brother died young, he was treated as the heir. In Tenshō 8 (1580) he succeeded to the headship when his father retired. He then fought fierce conflicts with many daimyō, including Uesugi Kagekatsu, Takeda Katsuyori and Tokugawa Ieyasu. After the fall of the Takeda clan in Tenshō 10 (1582), he made peace with Tokugawa Ieyasu, and in Tenshō 11 (1583) he took Ieyasu's daughter, Toku-hime (later Ryōshō-in), as his legitimate wife.

In the Odawara campaign of Tenshō 18 (1590), Ujinao held Odawara Castle against a force of more than 200,000 men led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After a siege lasting three months, he surrendered on the 5th day of the 7th month of Tenshō 18 (1590). While his father Ujimasa and his uncle Ujiteru committed seppuku, Ujinao survived through the intercession of Tokugawa Ieyasu and was banished to Mount Kōya. In Tenshō 19 (1591) he was pardoned and granted 10,000 koku, but on 19 December 1591 (Tenshō 19/11/4) he died of illness at the young age of 30.

In terms of Japanese swords, Ujinao was a daimyō who valued blades as a warlord of the Odawara Hōjō house. The Later Hōjō clan formed its own sword culture in the Kantō region, protecting and nurturing smiths of the Sōshū tradition (Sōshū-den). In particular, works made by the lineage of the smiths Yasukuni and Yasuharu, forged in the castle town of Odawara, are called "Odawara Sōshū". Ujinao also presented the Hōjō family's treasured tachi, Nikkō Ichimonji, to Kuroda Yoshitaka, who had been in charge of persuading the Hōjō to surrender Odawara Castle. The sword is now a National Treasure held by the Fukuoka City Museum.