Imagawa Ujichika

Imagawa Ujichika (1473–1526) was the head of the Imagawa clan in the early Sengoku period and is known as the father of Imagawa Yoshimoto. He is also called the "patriarch of the Imagawa restoration" for achieving the unification of Suruga and Tōtōmi provinces and establishing the Imagawa family's foundation as a Sengoku daimyō. He is also highly regarded as a law-based ruler who enacted the "Imagawa Kana Mokuroku" (1526), considered one of Japan's first domain laws (bunkokuhō).

Ujichika was born in 1473 (the fifth year of Bunmei) as the son of Imagawa Yoshitada. When his father Yoshitada was killed in battle against local landowner forces in Tōtōmi in 1476 (the eighth year of Bunmei), the issue of succession to the Imagawa clan headship arose while he was still young. After the resulting strife (the Imagawa clan's internal dispute), Ujichika established his headship with the assistance of Ise Sōzui (later Hōjō Sōun). Thereafter, in coordination with Ise Sōzui, he consolidated control over Suruga and Tōtōmi and prevailed in conflicts with the Shiba clan to the west and the Ōgigayatsu Uesugi clan to the east.

Particularly significant among Ujichika's political achievements was the enactment of the "Imagawa Kana Mokuroku." This was a domain law (ryōkoku tōchihō) consisting of 33 articles that codified standards of behavior for retainers, litigation procedures, and punishments. This legal code, reflecting the advanced legal thinking of the time, together with the "Imagawa Kana Mokuroku Tsuika" later refined by Imagawa Yoshimoto and Taigen Sessai, formed the backbone of the Imagawa clan's governing system.

In the realm of Japanese swords, Ujichika is important as a ruler who developed Suruga's swordsmithing culture. Suruga Province (present-day central Shizuoka Prefecture) had been a swordsmithing production area since the medieval period, and during Ujichika's reign the Suruga swordsmiths influenced by the Sōshū tradition (the technical lineage of Sagami swordsmiths including Masamune, which arose in the Kamakura period) reached their peak. Ujichika himself valued swords, and records remain of his use of famous blades as diplomatic gifts. He built the foundations of the Imagawa family's sword collection and laid the groundwork for the Imagawa sword culture that was inherited by Yoshimoto and Sessai.