Person1538 – 1590
Hōjō Ujimasa
Fourth head of the Later Hōjō, who kept real power after yielding the headship to his son Ujinao and was made to commit suicide when Odawara Castle surrendered in 1590
Son of Hōjō Ujiyasu, third head of the Later Hōjō, he succeeded in 1559. Alternately allied with and fighting the Takeda and Uesugi, he expanded across the Kantō to the family’s greatest extent. He passed the headship to his son Ujinao in 1580 but kept real power. Slow to answer Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s summons and implicated in the Nagurumi Castle affair, he brought on the Odawara campaign of 1590 and, after the surrender, committed suicide with his brother Ujiteru.
