Hōjō Ujinao

Hōjō Ujinao (1562-1591) was the fifth head of the Later Hōjō clan (Odawara Hōjō family), which was based at Odawara in Sagami Province (present-day Kanagawa Prefecture), reigning as a sengoku daimyō over the Kantō region. After a "dyarchy" with his father Hōjō Ujimasa, he inherited the family headship, and became the last head of the Hōjō family, which had ruled the Kantō for approximately 120 years, until Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Odawara Campaign in 1590. After surrendering, he was exiled to Mount Kōya and passed away the following year at the age of 30.

Ujinao was born in 1562 as the eldest son of Hōjō Ujimasa. He began joint governance (dyarchy) with his father around 1574, and officially inherited the family headship in 1580. During this period, he engaged in fierce conflicts with many daimyō including Uesugi Kagekatsu, Takeda Katsuyori, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. After the fall of the Takeda clan in 1582, he made peace with Tokugawa Ieyasu, and in 1583 welcomed Ieyasu's daughter Toku-hime (later Ryōun-in) as his legal wife.

During the Odawara Campaign of 1590, he defended Odawara Castle as it was besieged by Toyotomi Hideyoshi's great army of over 200,000 men. After a siege lasting three months, he made the decision to surrender on July 5. While his father Ujimasa and uncle Ujiteru committed seppuku, Ujinao's life was spared through the mediation of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and he was exiled to Mount Kōya. However, on November 4, 1591, he died of illness at Mount Kōya at the young age of 30. It is passed down that at his death he said, "I wished I could have gone hawking one more time as a memento of this life."

In the realm of Japanese swords, Ujinao was a daimyō who respected swords as a Later Hōjō warrior. The Later Hōjō clan formed a unique sword culture sphere in the Kantō, protecting and fostering swordsmiths of the "Sōshū-den" (Sagami tradition). In particular, swordsmiths inheriting the lineage of the master craftsmen Hiromitsu and Akihiro of the Sōshū-den are said to have been active under the Odawara Hōjō family. Ujinao himself possessed family heirloom blades, and after he handed over the castle at the time of the Odawara Campaign, many of these swords were confiscated or scattered. Traces of the Kantō sword culture that scattered along with the fall of the Hōjō family are still preserved today in museums and resource centers within Kanagawa Prefecture.