Hōjō Ujimasa

Hōjō Ujimasa

Hōjō Ujimasa ( Japanese 北 条 氏 政 ; * 1538 ; † 1590 ) was a ruler in Japan.

Life

He was head of a clan ( uji ), the later Hōjō and, during the Sengoku period, daimyō at Odawara Castle . At times he was an ally of Takeda Shingen . Hōjō Ujimasa led many battles with the aim of consolidating the position of his clan. In 1590 he passed power to his son Hōjō Ujinao . Later that year, however, it failed in an attempt to defend Odawara against the attack by Toyotomi Hideyoshi . As a result, Ujimasa, like his brother Ujiteru, was forced to commit ritual suicide in the form of a seppuku .

According to tradition, Ujimasa also composed a death poem on this occasion :

雨雲 の お ほ え る 月 も 胸 の 霧 も は ら い に け り な 秋 の 夕 風	Autumn wind on the eve blows away the clouds that cluster before the moon's pure light. And sweep away the mists that cloud our minds too.
我 身 今 消 ゆ と や い か に お も ふ へ き 空 よ り き た り 空 に 帰 れ ば	Now we're passing So what do we have to make of this? We came out of the firmament Now may we return again That is ultimately a question of point of view.

literature

• Stephen Turnbull: The Samurai Sourcebook Cassell & Co., London 1998

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Hōjō is the family name, Ujimasa the first name.