Hojo Ujitsuna

Japanese: 北条氏綱 - ほうじょう・うじつな

Year of death: July 19, 1541 (August 10, 1541)
Year of birth: 1487
A military commander in the Sengoku period. Lord of Odawara Castle in Sagami. His father was Hojo Soun (Ise Sozui), and his mother was the daughter of Ogasawara Bizen no Kami. He was commonly known as Shinkuro. He first took the name Ise, but later changed it to Hojo. He was a Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Sakyo no Daibu. He is thought to have inherited the family name in 1518, and at the same time he began using the Tiger Seal and Cho Seal seal, and began to establish a new ruling system. In 1524, he carried out a succession land survey in the Odawara area and Kamakura. In January 1524, he attacked Ogigayatsu Uesugi Tomooki at Edo Castle, forcing him to retreat to Kawagoe Castle, and began his advance into and conquest of Musashi. During the conflict with Tomooki, he was called a "thug from another country," and in response, he changed his surname from Ise to Hojo between June and September of the year before he took Edo Castle. This change of surname, taken from the Hojo clan, the regents of the Kamakura Shogunate, is thought to have been an attempt to assert control over Sagami and Musashi (Sagami, Musashi) and the legitimacy of that rule. Construction of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine began in Tenbun 1 (1532). It was around this time that Ujitsuna took the elder sister of the regent Konoe Tanie (the daughter of Hisamichi) as his second wife. Through a battle with Imagawa Yoshimoto at the beginning of the sixth year and the capture of Kawagoe Castle in July of the same year, he almost conquered Musashi. In the first Battle of Kounodai the following year, he defeated Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the regent of Koyumi (also written as Namizane), further expanding his influence. In the eighth year, he married his daughter to Ashikaga Haruuji, the Koga kubo, further deepening their relationship. In the ninth year, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine was completed, and this project promoted the formation of a territory, and its success demonstrated Ujitsuna's power both at home and abroad. On May 21st of the seventh year, he wrote down five family precepts. He can be said to be the man who turned the so-called Later Hojo clan into a Sengoku daimyo in both name and reality.

(Sawaki Eiichi)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：天文10.7.19(1541.8.10)
生年：長享1(1487)
戦国時代の武将。相模小田原城主。父は北条早雲(伊勢宗瑞),母は小笠原備前守の娘か。通称新九郎。初め伊勢を称し,のち北条に改めた。従五位下左京大夫。家督の継承は永正15(1518)年とみられるが,それと同時に虎の印判,調の印判を使用し始め,新しい支配体制の整備に着手。同17年には小田原周辺や鎌倉などで代替わり検地を実施している。大永4(1524)年1月,江戸城に扇谷上杉朝興を攻めて河越城に敗走させ,武蔵への進出,制覇を開始した。朝興との抗争に際し朝興から「他国の凶徒」とののしられたことに対抗して,江戸城奪取前年の6月から9月の間に氏を伊勢から北条に改めた。鎌倉幕府の執権北条氏にちなむこの改姓は,相武(相模,武蔵)支配とその統治の正当性を主張するためのものとみられる。天文1(1532)年から鶴岡八幡宮の造営を開始。関白近衛稙家の姉(尚通の娘)を後添いとして迎えるのもこのころである。同6年初めの今川義元との戦い,同年7月の河越城攻略などを通じて武蔵をほぼ征服した。翌年の第1次国府台合戦では小弓(生実とも書く)御所足利義明を討滅し,勢力をさらに拡大。同8年には娘を古河公方足利晴氏に嫁がせ,関係をさらに深めている。同9年,鶴岡八幡宮が完成するが,この事業は領国の形成を促進し,その成功は氏綱の権勢を内外に誇示するものであった。同10年5月21日,5カ条からなる家訓を書き置く。いわゆる後北条氏を,名実ともに戦国大名に成長させた人物といえよう。

(佐脇栄智)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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