Ujiyasu's testament and the fate of the castle

Hojo Ujiyasu, the third lord of the Odawara Hojo, is remembered not only for strength as a Sengoku daimyo, but for leaving a sense of what must not be done. His five-article testament did not record techniques for winning. It marked lines that should be defended even if ruin came.

At the head of those lines is the thought: choose righteous ruin over prosperity without righteousness. It can be read as a warning not to do something shameful before later generations. When we look at Ujikuni's final decision, this is no distant family precept. It becomes a real standard that shaped the castle's fate.

Be frugal, but do not hesitate when spending is necessary

Ujiyasu's testament also warns toward frugality. Soun's twenty-one articles are said to express a similar idea: be frugal day to day, but spend without hesitation when the moment demands it. Hojo governance was not about display. It asked how to preserve an organization that could endure.

Frugality was not mere saving. It was a stance against exhausting the land and squeezing people for appearances. The idea inherited from Soun, that a country grows stronger when its people prosper, stands on the same line as Ujiyasu's warning.

Cherish retainers and people

Among the five articles, the teaching to cherish retainers and people connects directly to Hachigata's final chapter. In 1589, the Odawara Hojo decided on a strategy that used the outer castles as shields while the main force waited in Odawara. But that meant abandoning castles and commoners with whom Ujikuni had built trust.

Ujikuni objected. He returned alone to Hachigata and repeatedly wrote petitions to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. What he tried to protect was not simply territory or reputation. It was the lives of soldiers and civilians sheltering in the castles, and the fields that would otherwise be ruined.

Do not flatter; preserve martial responsibility

Ujiyasu's warning also says not to flatter and to preserve martial spirit. Here, martial spirit does not mean only the power to fight. It also means accepting responsibility. Ujikuni asked Hideyoshi to spare lives, but this was not flattery. It was an act of offering his pride in order to protect lives.

When Hachigata Castle opened without major battle, Ujikuni was spared, took the tonsure, and lived in seclusion at Shoryuji. Later he was placed with Maeda Toshiie and died in Kaga. He did not become a victor, but he was remembered by retainers and people, and his funeral procession is said to have stretched beyond the mountains.

Short words that decided a castle's end

Ujiyasu's testament is not enough if read only as abstract virtue. Righteousness, frugality, care for retainers and people, refusal to flatter, and responsibility in arms all took shape in Ujikuni's decision to protect without fighting. Hachigata Castle's bloodless surrender was not weakness. It was the method Hojo thought chose at the end.