Uesugi Norimasa

Uesugi Norimasa (1523-1579) was a military commander and daimyo of the Sengoku period who served as head of the Yamanouchi Uesugi house and as Kanto kanrei (deputy shogun for the Kanto). Although he held the office of Kanto kanrei, which oversaw the Kanto under the Muromachi shogunate, he was pressed by the rise of the upstart Go-Hojo clan, and he embodied both the decline of Uesugi authority in the Kanto and its transfer to Nagao Kagetora of Echigo (the later Uesugi Kenshin).

Conflict with the Go-Hojo

As Kanto kanrei, Norimasa was long at odds with Hojo Ujiyasu, who was expanding from Sagami into the Kanto. At the Battle of Kawagoe (the Kawagoe Night Battle) in 1546, he allied with the Ogigayatsu Uesugi and the Koga kubo to besiege the Hojo, but suffered a crushing defeat in Ujiyasu's night assault. This defeat greatly diminished the strength of the Yamanouchi Uesugi house; Norimasa was eventually driven from his base at Hirai Castle in Kozuke Province and fled to seek the protection of Nagao Kagetora in Echigo.

Transmission of the Uesugi Name and the Office of Kanto Kanrei

In 1561, Norimasa ceded the headship of the Uesugi house and the office of Kanto kanrei to Nagao Kagetora of Echigo, whom he had adopted. This succession was carried out as a formal ceremony at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine in Kamakura, after which Kagetora changed his name to Uesugi Masatora and later to Uesugi Kenshin. Thereby the authority of the Uesugi in the Kanto passed to Kenshin of Echigo, providing the justification for Kenshin's military expeditions into the Kanto.

Death and Legacy

After ceding the headship, Norimasa retired and became an elder figure of the Uesugi house. In the Otate no Ran, the succession dispute that broke out after Kenshin's death in 1578, he became entangled in the struggle over the Uesugi leadership, and in 1579 he was killed by Kagekatsu's forces while on his way to peace negotiations together with Dōmanmaru, the eldest son of Uesugi Kagetora (Kenshin's adopted son). Though unfortunate in his martial fortunes as Kanto kanrei, he left a major mark on the Sengoku-era situation in the Kanto by passing the Uesugi name and the office of Kanto kanrei to Kenshin.