Oda Ujiharu – Japan’s Weakest Warlord

Some samurai need no introduction. Oda Nobunaga, for example, is one of the most famous people dead or alive in Japan, and I would expect anyone reading this article to at the very least have heard his name. Other samurai need a considerable introduction. One such warrior is Oda Ujiharu, the man attributed with the title of weakest samurai of all of Sengoku.

That’s right… the strongest samurai and weakest samurai have the same name! This is pure coincidence, though; they’re not in any way related, nor is it likely that they ever crossed paths. In fact, in Japanese, their names are completely different. Despite the fact they read the same, if you look at the Chinese characters that make up their names, 織田信長(Oda Nobunaga) vs 小田氏治(Oda Ujiharu), you’ll see that Nobunaga’s 織田 and Ujiharu’s 小田 bear little resemblance. The first character in Nobunaga’s name means ‘weave’—testament to the fact that Nobunaga weaved an ever-growing web across the country that trapped every ‘fly’ in its path. The first character in Ujiharu’s name means ‘small’—testament to the fact that… well… he didn’t really achieve much of anything.

No, that’s not fair… the truth is, he wasn’t all that useless. In fact, more often than not, he got the job done. He just managed to do it in as clumsy, slapstick and comical a fashion as possible. To put it in terms millennials should be able to understand, Nobunaga was James Bond; Ujiharu was Johnny English. Despite being at opposite ends of the Sengoku spectrum, however, they share two similarities that make them extremely comparable: they were both born in 1534, and they both inherited their households at an early age. Before this article becomes too Nobunaga-heavy though, let’s take a look at the life of Oda Ujiharu.

Enemies

The Satake and the Yūki

In Sengoku, a daimyō was defined as much by his enemies as anything else. That being the case, let’s take a look at who Oda Ujiharu had his hands full with. Born into the Hitachi branch of the Oda family—a small samurai clan who had been awarded a sizeable area of land in Hitachi by Minamoto no Yoritomo after the Genpei War—Oda Ujiharu, 16th head of the clan, found himself facing constant oppression from the Satake—the leading power in the region, and, incidentally, descendants of the Minamoto. In addition to the Satake’s relentless bids to take over his castles and drive him out of his territory, Ujiharu had to contend with the Yūki to the north. In terms of manpower and resources, the Oda were a little weaker than the Yūki and a lot weaker than the Satake.

The Hōjō

There’s always a bigger fish though. The real power in the region was the Hōjō(another samurai name that should hopefully need no introduction). For the brief one-hundred-year period this legendary clan dominated the east of Japan, other than making and breaking alliances with some of the biggest samurai names, the Hōjō’s main deal was that more than anything, they dreamed of conquering the Kantō plain—a massive stretch of land in the east of Japan which engulfed eight provinces, including Hitachi.

The Uesugi

As if that wasn’t enough, Uesugi Kenshin(if you don’t know who the Hōjō are, you should at least know who this guy is!) had made it his mission in life to rid Kantō of the Hōjō. As such, he conducted frequent campaigns in the east where he(albeit temporarily) took over large portions of the Hōjō’s land. If you were unlucky enough to have an alliance with the Hōjō at such a time, chances were your manpower and defences took a major hit.

To sum up, in 1548, when Oda Ujiharu became head of the Oda household, he had to fend off two larger fish, who, in turn, were busy fending off two sharks. Needless to say, strategic alliances would be the key to his clan’s survival.

a game of Cat and Mouse

Unfortunately for Oda Ujiharu, he didn’t have a lot of choices when it came to alliance candidates. The same year he took over the household, Makabe Hisamoto, one of his chief retainers, defected to the Yūki, and the Yūki formed an alliance with the Hōjō. As Kenshin had not yet made it to Kantō,  Ujiharu had no choice but to keep his head down and hope that no one tried to attack him.

Shifting allegiances

In 1555, he finally managed to settle his feud with the Satake and join forces with them to attack Yūki Masakatsu, head of the Yūki clan. Masakatsu responded by having the Hōjō send reinforcements from three castles under their jurisdiction. With his army fortified, Masakatsu captured two of Oda Ujiharu’s Castles: Ebigashima and Oda(which, as you can probably tell by the name, was the clan’s main castle). Ujiharu escaped to Tsuchiura, his backup castle, and waited for the tide to change. It didn’t take long. Six months later, the Hōjō set their sights on Hitachi. Ujiharu got in quick this time and formed an alliance to help the Hōjō take down Ōta Castle—stronghold of the Satake. With the Hōjō now focussing on Hitachi, they lost interest in the Yūki and broke off their alliance. The balance of power having shifted, Ujiharu was able to take back Oda castle.

In 1557, Satake Yoshiaki, head of the Satake clan, managed to gather enough reinforcements to attack and capture Ebigashima and Oda. Once more, Oda Ujiharu escaped to Tsuchiura and waited two years until one of his retainers was able to reclaim his territories. Shortly after moving back home, he got a rare but welcome piece of good news: Yūki Masakatsu had died. This was the perfect time to launch an all-out attack. Ujiharu hastily marched his men down south to Shimōsa, home province of the Yūki, and charged the chief castle, only to face Makabe Hisamoto, who, if you’ll remember, used to work under Ujiharu, and, therefore, was familiar with his tactics. Not only did the attack fail, but while Ujiharu was away, the Satake stepped in and took Ebigashima castle a second time!!

Oda Ujiharu – the Opportunist

By this point, Oda Ujiharu’s life is probably starting to sound not so much like a game of cat and mouse but more like a game of whack-a-mole. He takes down a castle only to have another castle taken while he’s away, forcing him to have to reclaim that castle and, by doing so, leaves himself open to have his new castle reclaimed by his enemies. A larger army or an extra couple of allies could have most likely solved this problem, but Ujiharu wasn’t born into a situation that permitted either.

Like his namesake, however, Oda Ujiharu was quick to jump on an opportunity. His next major opportunity presented itself in 1560 when Uesugi Kenshin advanced on Kantō, determined to take down the Hōjō. Ujiharu quickly signed up and joined Kenshin’s army in attacking the Hōjō’s main fortress—Odawara Castle. With a powerful new ally backing him up, Ujiharu finally succeeded in taking back Ebigashima.

While taking advantage of opportunities is generally a good idea, Oda Ujiharu indiscriminately pounced on every opportunity that arose. This was not a good idea! In 1562, when the Hōjō invited the Oda clan back, he signed the contract without a second thought, despite still having an alliance with the Hōjō’s biggest enemy. To be fair, though, Kenshin had already returned home and was in no position to assist Ujiharu should the Hōjō try to take his land. Most other daimyō in Kantō actually took the same approach. Nevertheless, this betrayal would have severe consequences down the line.

The Wrath of Kenshin

When Kenshin returned a year later, Satake Yoshiaki went to meet with him. While he was away, Ujiharu stepped in and took one of his castles. This would turn out to be a huge mistake. Rather than man up and take his castle back by force, Satake Yoshiaki took the elementary-school approach of telling on Ujiharu. He ran straight back to Kenshin and informed him of Ujiharu’s betrayal(a fact that had somehow managed to slide under Kenshin’s radar). Furious, Kenshin gathered 8,000 men and charged Oda Castle. Unprepared and with only 3,000 men on hand, Ujiharu had no choice but to relinquish his stronghold once more. This time, he escaped to Fujisawa Castle.

Kenshin handed Oda Castle over to the Satake. Once more, Oda Ujiharu bode his time until an opportunity arose for him to reclaim his home. This time, the opportunity presented itself in the form of Satake Yohiaki’s death. Taking advantage of the confusion among his temporarily headless enemy, Ujiharu found himself back on familiar land.

Oda Castle’s Defences(or lack thereof)

You may be wondering why Oda Castle was so easy to take and reclaim. Given the fact that when attacking a castle, the rule of thumb was that your army should be at least four times larger than that of the army held up inside the castle, the relatively small Oda army should never have been able to take back its castle regardless of any extenuating circumstances.

The answer to this mystery is, however, disappointingly simple: Oda castle’s defences just weren’t on par with many of the other castles in the Sengoku era. It was easy to take but difficult to keep. This wasn’t uncommon though; at the beginning of the Muromachi era, during the dispute between the Northern and Southern courts, the capital changed hands multiple times for the exact same reason. If your territory was difficult to protect, you had to be prepared to have it taken from you at any time while also holding on to a plan to recover it as quickly as possible.

Having survived for centuries under the protection of the Kamakura and Muromachi shōgunates, there had never been much need for the Oda to upgrade their defences. Should a rival clan make a bid for their land, the shōgunate would quickly send reinforcements and put an end to the skirmish. For this reason, none of the clan’s previous leaders had needed to worry about protecting their territory. Now, however, with the shōgunate virtually powerless and all hell having broken loose across every corner of the country, an impenetrable fortress was vital to the survival of even the smallest clan. Having neither the time nor the resources to make the necessary upgrades, Ujiharu had no choice but to continue playing whack-a-mole with the Satake for the foreseeable future.

Mending Relationships(but not castles)

The year was now 1567. Kenshin was returning to Kantō. Uhiharu knew he’d never be able to defeat the Sengoku legend, so he opted for a preemptive abandonment of Oda Castle before Kenshin’s arrival and sought the help of Takeda Shingen, Kenshin’s biggest rival. When this didn’t pan out, left with no other choice, he surrendered to Kenshin and offered a formal apology. Kenshin allowed Ujiharu to return to Oda Castle on the condition that he refrain from repairing the damaged outer walls.

Farewell to Oda Castle

Ujiharu enjoyed a break for the following few years before the Satake came knocking on his door once more. He led an army out to face them and managed to do a great deal of damage to their troops. Encouraged by his victory, he decided to attack the Satake back later that year, but, once again, his attempt was thwarted by Makabe.

15 or so years of rivalry with the Satake came to a head in 1573 when the two clans clashed a record 17 times in the space of a year! It kicked off on New Year’s Day. Taking advantage of the fact Ujiharu and his men were hungover from the previous night’s festivities, the Satake attacked and captured Oda Castle. Less than a month later, Ujiharu amassed an army of 5,500 and took the castle back. In March, the Satake took it for what would be the last time. Tragically, Oda Ujiharu would never succeed in retrieving his family’s main castle. Unlike every other time he had fled from its walls knowing that it would be back under his control in the space of a few months, little did he know this time would be his last farewell. From that point on, Fujisawa would be his new home. 

The Decline of the Oda

Later in the year, Ujiharu signed back up with the Hōjō in an attempt to have them intervene and try to mediate a peace treaty, but the Satake weren’t willing to negotiate. In July and August, they took down two more of Ujiharu’s castles. Fujisawa Castle survived two attacks, but its defences were weakened, so Ujiharu moved his men to Tsuchiura. In November, the Satake finally succeeded in taking control of Fujisawa.

Tsuchiura was next on the Satake’s list, but its defences were strong: marshland to the north, a river to the west and ocean to the south. Unable to defeat the castle by force, the Satake decided to lay siege to it. Ujiharu and his men guarded the castle walls for a month before the Satake’s reinforcements arrived. Tsuchiura’s defensive location would no longer be enough to protect it from the invading army. Moriharu, Ujiharu’s son, opened the gates and led 300 men to battle, but they quickly realised they stood no chance of driving the massive army off this time. Tsuchiura fell.

Perpetual feud

Ujiharu’s oldest son, Tomoharu, who was serving the Hōjō at the time, asked Hōjō Ujimasa, the head of the Hōjō clan, to help him take back his family’s castles. Ujimasa awarded one of his sons a large number of men and sent him off to take care of the matter. Fortunately, though, the man put in charge of Tsuchiura by the Satake was originally loyal to Ujihara and had only switched sides as it was preferable to surrendering and being made to kill himself. As such, he handed the castle back to the Oda without a fight.

Oda Castle, however, didn’t go as well. The Hōjō army attempted an attack but was quickly driven back by the Satake’s reinforcements. With the help of the Hōjō, Ujiharu continued to oppose the Satake for a further 16 years, perpetuating the two clans’ game of whack-a-mole, pointlessly taking and retaking castles from each other more for sport than anything else; by this point, it was abundantly clear that the Satake had won the war. Ujiharu was more than likely fully aware that all battles fought between the clans post-1573 were nothing more than exhibition matches.

In 1580, still without having resolved his conflict with the Satake, Ujiharu became a monk and took the Buddhist name ‘Ten-an’. Like many daimyō who joined the priesthood, however, he continued to assume unofficial control of his clan. In 1585, under his command, the Oda army succeeded in regaining Fujisawa Castle. In 1590, he made a last-ditch effort to take back Oda Castle, pouring as many soldiers as he could afford into the battle and overpowering the Satake while suffering numerous casualties. Ultimately, he managed to drive his enemy back inside the castle walls but failed to reclaim his home.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Later that year, Oda Ujiharu received what would be the final opportunity of his career. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, having taken over the rest of the country, was advancing on Kantō. The tide had changed. Gone were the days of the Hōjō and Kenshin vying for control over the region; it was clear to pretty much every samurai in the country that Japan now belonged to Hideyoshi.

Nevertheless, perhaps having learned from past mistakes, rather than jumping on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Ujihara opted to stick with the Hōjō, giving up his spot on Hideyoshi’s dream team to the Satake. As was more often than not the case with Ujiharu, this too would turn out to be the wrong choice. When Hideyoshi was done overthrowing the Hōjō and conquering Kantō, Ujiharu’s remaining land was confiscated. He tried contacting several local samurai allied with Japan’s new conqueror and have them put in a good word for him, but no one was interested; he was too small a fish. 

Ujiharu didn’t give up, though. The following year when Hideyoshi travelled north to try to regulate a number of feudal clans who had recently joined his cause, Ujiharu tracked him down and apologised in person. Under normal circumstances, no level of apology would have swayed the new ruler. However, Hideyoshi decided to take a lenient approach, perhaps due to the fact that Ujiharu’s daughter was married to Yūki Hideyasu.

Yūki Hideyasu

Having lost not only his land but also his daimyō status, in a final desperate bid to reclimb the samurai ladder, Ujiharu had made peace with his old enemy, the Yūki. As part of the terms surrounding the two clans’ new alliance, Ujiharu had handed his daughter off to the young new leader of the Yūki clan—Hideyasu. Some of you may already know; others may have figured it out: Hideyasu… Hideyoshi… It’s no coincidence. Hideyasu’s ‘Hide’ is the same as Hideyoshi’s ‘Hide’!

Was Hideyasu related to Hideyoshi? …Nope. It’s even more interesting than that! Back in 1584, when Hideyoshi was fighting with Tokugawa Ieyasu, the two made peace under a number of conditions, one of them being that Ieyasu handed over his second son to be adopted by Hideyoshi. Taking the ‘Hide'(秀) character from his name and the ‘Yasu'(康) character from Ieyasu’s name, Hideyoshi awarded the boy the name ‘Hideyasu'(秀康). In short, through Hideyasu, Oda Ujiharu had ties to two of the most powerful daimyō in the country. This was enough for Hideyoshi to permit him an area of land large enough for him and his family to retire comfortably to, on the agreement that he remained under the jurisdiction of his son-in-law. In 1601 when Hideyasu was relocated to Echizen, Ujiharu tagged along with his oldest son, Tomoharu. He died a year later at the age of 68.

Conclusion

While he may have lost numerous castles multiple times during the course of his leadership, Oda Ujiharu also managed to regain his castles multiple times. He was resilient; he never gave up even towards the end of his life when the Satake took all but the very smallest of his castles. He continuously rose from the ashes of his burning empire to fight to keep his clan alive. For this reason, despite being known in Japan as the weakest samurai of the Sengoku era, Oda Ujiharu is also nicknamed ‘The Phoenix’.

While you could argue that he was born into difficult times the likes of which no one could have predicted and, therefore, couldn’t have prepared for, a number of poor decisions and mistimed alliances were major factors that contributed to Oda Ujiharu’s demise. Nevertheless, despite his shortcomings, Ujiharu was extremely popular with the local populace, as evidenced by the fact that whenever Oda Castle was taken by anyone other than Ujiharu, the locals would hide themselves and avoid paying taxes until he returned.

As a final point, just to complete the comparison between Ujiharu and his namesake, let’s take a look at what happened at the end of both men’s lives. Oda Ujiharu: died at the age of 68 having lost his family’s land and status. Oda Nobunaga: killed at the age of 49, had his empire usurped by his protégé, the main branch of his family was cut off 22 years after his death and the remaining branches slowly lost their power over the following years until the Oda name was all but forgotten. Putting details and accolades aside and looking at the stats alone, Ujiharu didn’t do so badly! Was he really the weakest samurai of the Sengoku era? I’ll leave that for you to consider.