Imagawa Ujizane

Imagawa Ujizane (1538–1615) was born as the eldest son of Imagawa Yoshimoto and became the 12th head of the Imagawa clan, a daimyo of the Sengoku period. After his father Yoshimoto was defeated by Oda Nobunaga at the Battle of Okehazama (1560), Ujizane inherited the clan leadership. However, due to invasions of Suruga by Takeda Shingen and Tokugawa Ieyasu, the Imagawa's daimyo power rapidly collapsed.

In 1569, he opened the gates of Kakegawa Castle and surrendered to Tokugawa Ieyasu. Though he lost his status as daimyo, he survived as a man of culture under the patronage of the Tokugawa and Toyotomi. He was widely known as a master of kemari (court football), and it is recorded that at the request of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he performed kemari with the court nobility of the Toyotomi regime. He also excelled in waka poetry and participated in poetry gatherings hosted by Emperor Goyōzei.

Regarding swordsmanship, there is a theory that he studied under Tsukahara Bokuden, and it is said he mastered Imagawa-ryū military tactics. Though he lost his daimyo power, he lived to age 77 in 1615, ensuring the Imagawa bloodline continued into the Edo period. Posterity often depicts him as a "loser of the Sengoku period," but recent scholarship has reassessed his adaptability in both political and cultural domains.