Hōjō Sōun

后期 Hōjō 氏的创立者 · Izu 与 Sagami 的领主

Hōjō Sōun (1432-1519), known in his lifetime as Ise Shinkurō Nagauji and then Ise Sōzui, is often presented as the first “daimyō of the Sengoku period.” Born into a branch of the Ise family serving the Ashikaga shoguns, he rose within the entourage of the Imagawa of Suruga before conquering Izu Province (1491-1493), where he made Nirayama Castle his base. Around 1495, he seized Odawara Castle from Ōmori Fujiyori: the fortress became, for nearly a century, the capital of the lineage he founded, the later Hōjō. In 1516, the fall of Arai Castle and the elimination of the Miura clan gave him all of Sagami Province. He died at Nirayama in 1519; his son Ujitsuna adopted the name Hōjō, under which the founder has passed into posterity.