During Japan’s Sengoku (Warring States) period, there was one name that instantly struck fear into the hearts of even the most powerful feudal lords: “Oda,” as in the merciless master maneuverer Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582). Interestingly, around the same time, there was a name that elicited the exact opposite reaction, and it was also “Oda” — as in Oda Ujiharu, master of Oda Castle in modern-day Ibaraki Prefecture, whose constant losing streak made him known as the weakest Sengoku samurai warlord. Why, then, do so many people admire him today? Let’s find out.
Taken from “The Siege of Shimoasakusa Castle” | Wikimedia
The Loser Phoenix of Hitachi
Born sometime in the 1530s (perhaps even in 1534, though that may have been an invention to draw parallels between Ujiharu and Nobunaga), the weakest samurai warlord in history has no connection to the Demon King. Their names are written with different characters and point to two vastly different lineages. Nobunaga hailed from a relatively minor family in Owari (modern-day Aichi), while Ujiharu was connected to the Hatta clan that once was a major player in the Kamakura shogunate. He was also a close relative of many important figures in the Ashikaga shogunate.
Ujiharu ruled the strategically important Hitachi Province from the massive Oda Castle, whose entire complex was 4.6 times larger than Tokyo Dome. That wasn’t the main reason why, like, four different warlords kept stealing it from him, but it probably was a factor. During the Sengoku period, both the shogunate and the emperor effectively lost power, so Ujiharu’s ancestry meant nothing to the Hojo, Yuki, Satake or Uesugi clans, who conquered Oda Castle a total of nine times.
Losing one’s home once was often enough to drive a Sengoku samurai to commit seppuku out of shame, but if Ujiharu dismembered himself every time he lost Oda Castle, he’d have been just a head floating in a jar by the end.
However, a wise man once said: “[It] ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward.” Ujiharu may have lost Oda Castle nine times, but that means he also won it back eight times, almost always with smaller armies. His refusal to accept defeat and his iron will to get up and keep fighting is why many historians reject the “weakest samurai warlord” nickname and instead refer to him as “The Phoenix.”
Oda Ujiharu, artist unknown | Wikimedia
Man of the People
Ujiharu lost Oda Castle so many times because he made bafflingly bad military decisions. During his war with the Satake clan, Ujiharu’s chief strategist — on his deathbed — begged his lord to barricade himself and his army in the fortification, wait for reinforcements and not meet the enemy on the field.
The castle’s main defenses were its walls, moats and nearby rivers. Outside that, Oda Castle was surrounded by flatlands. And yet, ignoring his strategist’s dying words, the lord of Hitachi refused to stay put and challenged the Satake to open combat. He was then cut off from his base by the enemy’s hidden forces, allowing them to take Oda Castle. This was the second time that this exact same strategy lost Ujiharu his ancestral home. Some other wise man once said: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
However, Ujiharu’s blind charges may actually have had a noble purpose. Japanese battles involving castles almost always turned into sieges, and those always ended the same way: with the nearby fields and peasant settlements being either destroyed to try and draw the lord out of the castle or looted to feed the occupying army. Some researchers believe that Ujiharu was trying to avoid a siege to save his subjects.
Even if that wasn’t the case and he was simply a really bad strategist, his retainers and farmers chose to see the best in their lord and were fiercely loyal to him. During Ujiharu’s early campaigns, some of his men did defect to the enemy, but a few raids to protect or take back Oda Castle later and you apparently could not threaten or pay off anyone in Ujiharu’s service to move against him. Forget “The Phoenix”: “A Feudal Lord Actually Liked by His Retainers and Farmers” may be less pithy but is much more impressive.
Everybody Makes Mistakes
The main arguments against Ujiharu’s incompetence were his obvious diplomatic skills. During his fight with the Hojo, Yuki, Satake or Uesugi families, he kept forming alliances and switching sides to best serve his own purposes, and he would not have been able to do that unless he could skillfully talk his way into the good graces of his former enemies.
That being said, he did make mistakes, like betraying Uesugi Kenshin, one of Japan’s most powerful and feared warlords, often mentioned in the same breath as Oda Nobunaga (plus an ordained monk fueled in battle by his fiery faith). This cost him Oda Castle, but he later got it back. Then he lost it a few more times until he made his ultimate mistake: refusing to swear allegiance to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After the death of Nobunaga, Hideyoshi continued his master’s quest to unify Japan and eventually arrived at Ujiharu’s doorstep demanding his fealty.
However, the lord of Oda Castle was worried about losing his home (either due to personal attachment or to protect his people) and took too long to give his answer. So, Hideyoshi conquered his lands and stripped Ujiharu of all his titles because Japan back then operated on prison rules; you couldn’t afford to show weakness. After some begging, Hideyoshi spared Ujiharu’s life, who then went to live with Yuki Hideyasu, son of Tokugawa Ieyasu (Toranaga on Shogun). A bit of an ignoble end, but the other Oda got betrayed by his general and had to commit seppuku in a burning temple, so who’s the real winner here?
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