Imagawa Ujizane
Imagawa Ujizane
Master of Kemari Who Survived the Sengoku Age
1538-1615 · 享年 77歳
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Three Surprising Facts
Successor After Okehazama — The Mediocre Son Who Failed to Avenge His Father and Lost the Imagawa
Imagawa Ujizane became Imagawa head after his father Yoshimoto was killed at Okehazama (1560), but proved unable to provide effective leadership. In 1568, when Takeda Shingen and Tokugawa Ieyasu launched a coordinated attack on Imagawa territory (ending the Tripartite Alliance), Ujizane could barely resist and kept fleeing, surrendering to Ieyasu at Kakegawa Castle in 1569. The roughly 150-year Imagawa control thus effectively ended. Yet Ujizane was a renowned master of kemari (court football) and lived into the early Edo period, reportedly dying at age 80. Branded as incompetent by the Sengoku's meritocratic standards, he nonetheless possessed genuine talent as a cultural figure.
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Full Biography
From birth to death
Born in 1538 as heir to Imagawa Yoshimoto, the dominant daimyo of the Tokaido. After his father was killed at Okehazama by Nobunaga in 1560, he inherited leadership but was criticized for prioritizing kemari and waka poetry over governance. He lost Suruga to Takeda Shingen in 1572 and Totomi to Tokugawa Ieyasu soon after, effectively ending the Imagawa as a power. Ujizane wandered as a refugee, at one point sheltering with former enemy Oda Nobunaga. Through remarkable cultural skill and adaptability he survived to die peacefully at age 77 in 1615—an extraordinary longevity for the heir of a destroyed clan.
Personality
Deeply devoted to culture and arts—waka, kemari, renga—with exceptional talent. While lacking political and military ability as a daimyo, he showed remarkable flexibility in adapting to change and a survivor's instinct.
Historical Significance
He survived the fall of his clan and continued as a cultural figure into the early Edo period. His connections with the Asukai kemari school helped preserve court culture. Unusually for a defeated Sengoku lord, he died of natural causes at a great age.
Family Tree
Family Tree
Jokein
Takeda Nobutora's daughter
Yoshimoto
Greatest Archer of Tokaido
Ujizane
Kemari master, Fall of Imagawa
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