Ujiteru Hōjō

Ujiteru Hōjō is Ujiyasu's third son. He protected the northern borders of the Hōjō clan for most of his career. He is the master of Hachioji Castle during the Odawara campaign, but was personally defeated when trying to rescue Odawara from its siege. He and his brother had to commit seppuku to protect what remained of their clan.

Role in Games
Ujiteru first appears in Samurai Warriors at Odawara Castle, protecting the fourth floor's exit. When Yoshimoto Imagawa invades earlier in the Xtreme Legends, Ujiteru fights with Ujimasa and Ujikuni at the entrance of the second floor. In Samurai Warriors 2, Ujiteru reassumes his place at Odawara, this time fighting outside of the castle and defends the strategic location, Mt. Ishigaki, where Hideyoshi wants to establish his forward camp.

SW3 presents several of the earlier Hōjō conflicts, many of which Ujiteru fights. During the Kantō Campaign, Ujiteru acts as one of the last lines of defence against Kenshin Uesugi's assault. Later on, when Shingen Takeda is returning from his own assault on Odawara, Ujiteru and his brother Ujikuni Hōjō launch an attack at Mimase Pass. Both brothers find their pincer attack thwarted, however, and require a rescue from the main Hōjō force under Ujiyasu. At Oshi Castle, Ujiteru guards the southern satellite garrison around Oshi, stalling for enough time so the dikes can be broken, allowing an ambush of the Toyotomi forces.

Samurai Warriors 4's version of Kantō has Ujiteru fight alongside Saburō at the southeast entrance to the second ward. They fight valiantly against the Uesugi vanguard, but cannot stop Kenshin's personal attack. At Totomi, Ujiteru accompanies his father in defending Ujizane Imagawa from the Tokugawa. Ujiteru also appears at Kannagawa, lying in wait as the last wave of ambushes at the southern garrison of Kanakubo Castle, alongside Daizen Yoda. The ambush is meant to expose the Oda leader, Kazumasu Takigawa. In this iteration of Odawara Castle, Ujiteru guards the third floor of Odawara itself, the last line of defence before Ujimasa and Ujiyasu.

In the Nobunaga's Ambition series, Ujiteru serves his family clan and tends to have fairly strong stats, somewhere in the 80s. Even his weakest ability, politics, is still more than average compared to many officers.

Quotes

 * "Father… I have proven unworthy of your name..."
 * "You have proven nothing, but that you are a fool… Just like your old man."
 * Ujiteru and Ujiyasu; "Samurai Warriors 3

Following his Father
Hōjō Ujiteru was born the third son of Hōjō Ujiyasu. In the same year as his genpuku (coming into manhood) ceremony, Ujiteru was already assigned the important task of restoring the Sagami-Zamago shrine, which was in the territory of the Oishi clan. When he took his adult name Ujiteru, he also started calling himself Genzo.

As part of the Hōjō's efforts to consolidate power and maintain clan loyalty, Ujiteru was adopted into the Oishi clan. He was Oishi Saddahisa's new heir and he married Hiza, the daughter of his new adoptive father. Ujiteru started calling himself Yui Genzo once he was assigned control of Yui territory as part of his adoption into the Oishi clan. Ujiteru expanded the lands under his control in 1562 when he absorbed Katsunuma from the recently destroyed Kunishu clan to his north. He also besieged Sekiyado Castle, nearly provoking tis surrender before an invasion crisis forced him to turn back and defend his land. In between conquests, Ujiteru began the construction of Takiyama Castle as his new base of operations.

This new base became a point of contention when Takeda Shingen invaded from Kobotoke and Usui passes. The Takeda were on their own Odawara campaign and Ujiteru was besieged at Takiyama by a force led by Takeda Katsuyori. The exact account of of Ujiteru's combat with Katsuyori is uncertain. Some records claim the fighting went poorly for Ujiteru, claiming he lost the Sennomaru (the third and outermost defense) and was forced to hold out at the Ninomaru, (the second layer of defense). Ujiteru himself claimed in a letter to Yamayoshi Toyomori, an Uesugi retainer, that the fighting never left the castle city itself.

Regardless of the exact nature of Ujiteru's defense of Takiyama, he and his brother Hōjō Ujikuni launched a counterattack on the Takeda. The Takeda siege of Odawara went quite poorly for the Takeda and had to return home in defeat. Ujiteru and his brother met Shingen's forces at Mimase Pass, intending to pincer the Tiger of Kai between themselves and the Hōjō forces coming up from Odawara. Unfortunately for the two Hōjō brothers, several of the Takeda forces managed to get higher up on the mountain then they were and caught the ambush in their own pincer, allowing Shingen to easily escape before the Odawara forces could arrive.

Serving Ujimasa
In 1574, Ujiteru participated in the capture of Shimose province. He once more besieged Sekiyado Castle and forced its castilian, Yanada Jisuke, to flee to safety with the Satake clan. In the following year, Hōjō Ujimasa led an invasion of Shimotsuke province, with Ujiteru joining in the effort to capture Enomoto Castle. Following this success, Ujiteru turned his sights on Koyama Hidetsuna, capturing the Koyama castle and forcing Hidetsuna to also seek sanctuary with the Satake as well. Ujiteru's contributions to his clan earned him a place as an overseer at Odawara Castle.

A new opportunity arose in 1578 when the Uesugi fell into civil war over who would be Uesugi Kenshin's heir. Ujimasa responded to Uesugi Kagetora pleas for support, seeing opportunity in his younger brother taking control of such a major clan. Ujiteru and Ujikuni led the effort to aid their younger brother by crossing Mikuni Pass and capturing Kabasawa Castle. The brothers proceeded to lay siege to Sakado Castle, but found stiff resistance there from Uesugi Kagekatsu's forces. Winter broke their siege early, and by the time they could return in the spring, Kagetora had already been slain.

With the end of the Koso Alliance, the Hōjō were looking to make a new pact with the Tokugawa and Oda. To that end, in 1579, Ujiteru sent Kasahara Yasuaki and Mamiya Tsunanobu to negotiate with Oda Nobunaga at Azuchi Castle. While these negotiations went well, the alliance proved shaky, collapsing with the death of Nobuanga in 1582. Almost immediately after learning of his death, Ujiteru accompanied Hōjō Ujinao to drive out Takigawa Kazumasu from their northern border at the battle of Kannagawa.

The Hōjō withdrew contact with the meteoric Hashiba (eventual Toyotomi) clan, opting instead to invade Kai and Shinano provinces to claim further formerly Oda lands. Ujiteru participated in this conflict, called the Tensho-Jingo war, where much land and several castles regularly crossed hands, no clan gaining a distinct advantage.

Trouble continued to rise as the Toyotomi came to besiege Odawara in 1590. Ujiteru was in charge of Hachiōji Castle at the time, but left behind a much smaller force to protect that satellite castle to try and safeguard Odawara. With only 1,300 soldiers and about 3,000 people in total, the castle was attacked by 15,000 forces and overcome in a day. The dead numbered exceptionally that day, with over a thousand defenders killed, including Ujiteru's wife.

Odawara fell shortly afterwards, and Ujiteru was named as one of the instigators of the conflict and ordered to commit seppuku. His death poems read: "With which windy malice blows, the flowers bloom in the spring, and the leaves of maple-leaves fall" and "From the purity of heaven and earth, I will return to the abode of my birth". One of Ujiteru's retainers, Nakayama Ienori, descendants built Ujiteru a memorial tower in Hachiōji.

Ujiteru was noted for his skill at diplomacy. He managed to maintain good relations with both friend and ally, completely handling the Hōjō's relations with the Ashina and Date clans by himself. He also preferred to incorporate his adopted clan into his retinue, contrasting with his brother Ujjikuni, who purged his adopted clan as soon as he was made its proper head.

Gallery
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