The name of Hojo Ujiyasu is enshrined in the hearts of Japanese bushi. He combined in an extraordinary degree gentleness and bravery, magnanimity and resolution, learning and martial spirit. It was commonly said that from the age of sixteen he had scarcely doffed his armour; had never once showed his back to a foe, and had received nine wounds all in front.* Before he died (1570) he had the satisfaction of establishing a double link between the Hojo and the house of the great warrior, Takeda Shingen, a son and a daughter from each family marrying a daughter and a son of the other.**
*Thus a frontal wound came to be designated by his name.
**The present Viscount Hojo is a descendant of Ujiyasu.
THE TAKEDA AND THE UESUGI
Descended (sixteenth generation) from Minamoto Yoshimitsu, Takeda Harunobu (1521-1573) took the field against his father, who had planned to disinherit him in favour of his younger brother. Gaining the victory, Harunobu came into control of the province of Kai, which had long been the seat of the Takeda family. This daimyo, commonly spoken of as Takeda Shingen, the latter being the name he took on receiving the tonsure, ranks among Japan's six great captains of the sixteenth century, the roll reading thus:
Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)
Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578)
Hojo Ujimasa (1538-1590)
Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582)
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598)