Hojo Soun

Statue of Hojo Soun
exists in front of Odawara station (Odawara, Japan)

was the first head of the late Hojo clan, one of the major powers in Japan's Sengoku period. Originally Ise Shinkurō, a samurai from a family of little importance or power, he fought his way up, gaining territory and changing his name to the illustrious Hōjō.

According to some sources, he was a lowly samurai or ronin, but he had some important family connections. His sister was married to Imagawa Yoshitada, a member of a fairly powerful samurai family. When Yoshitada died in battle in 1480, Shinkurō fought off the attackers and secured the inheritance of Yoshitada's son, who rewarded him with a castle. He gained control of the Izu Province in 1493, avenging a wrong committed by a member of the Ashikaga family which held the shogunate.

Soon afterwards, he secured Odawara, the castle which would become the center of the Hōjō family's domains for nearly a century. Supposedly, he seized the castle after arranging for its lord to be murdered while out hunting. Sōun then took Kamakura, the old Shogunal capital, in 1512, and the castle of Arai in 1518. It was around this time that he took on the name Hōjō, hoping that his family's power would last, and seeking to recall the power and importance of the earlier Hōjō clan which dominated the regency for centuries. He also took on the mon, or family crest, of the old Hōjō clan.

Sōun died the following year, and passed on the newly build Hōjō domains to his son Ujitsuna.

References

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