Late Hōjō clan

Late Hōjō clan (後北条氏, Go-Hōjō-shi) was one of the most powerful warrior clans in Japan in the Sengoku period and held domains primarily in the Kantō region.

The history of the family is written in the Hojo Godaiki.^[1]

The clan is traditionally reckoned to be started by Ise Shinkurō, who came from a branch of the prestigious Ise clan, a family in the direct employment of the Ashikaga Shoguns. During the succession crisis in the 15th century, Shinkuro became associated with the Imagawa clan via the marriage of his sister to the Imagawa head, who led an army to Kyoto. Through this relationship Shinkuro quickly established a base of power in Kanto.

His son wanted his lineage to have a more illustrious name, and chose Hōjō, after the line of regents of the Kamakura shogunate, to which his wife also belonged. So he became Hōjō Ujitsuna, and his father, Ise Shinkurō, was posthumously renamed Hōjō Sōun.

The Late Hōjō, sometimes known as the Odawara Hōjō after their home castle of Odawara in Sagami Province, were not related to the earlier Hōjō clan. Their power rivaled that of the Tokugawa clan, but eventually Toyotomi Hideyoshi eradicated the power of the Hōjō in the Siege of Odawara (1590), banishing Hōjō Ujinao and his wife Toku Hime (a daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu) to Mount Kōya, where Ujinao died in 1591.

The heads of the Late Hōjō clan were

• Hōjō Sōun (1432–1519)
• Hōjō Ujitsuna (1487–1541), son of Sōun
• Hōjō Ujiyasu (1515–1571), son of Ujitsuna
• Hōjō Ujimasa (1538–1590), son of Ujiyasu
• Hōjō Ujinao (1562–1591), son of Ujimasa

Popular Culture

The Hojo are a playable faction in the video game Shogun 2.

References

Additional Reading

• Turnbull, Stephen (2002). 'War in Japan: 1467-1615'. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.