The history of the family is written in the
Hōjō Godaiki. The clan is traditionally reckoned to be started by
Ise Shinkurō, who came from a branch of the prestigious Ise clan, descendants of Taira no Toshitsugu, a family in the direct service of the
Ashikaga shoguns, as close advisors and
Shugo (Governor) of
Yamashiro Province (Ise Sadamichi since 1493). During the Imagawa clan succession crisis in 1476, Shinkurō whose sister was married to
Imagawa Yoshitada, Shugo (Governor) of
Suruga Province, became associated with the
Imagawa clan. At the death of Yoshitada in battle, Shinkurō went down to Suruga Province to support his nephew
Imagawa Ujichika. Through this relationship Shinkurō quickly established a base of power in Kantō. His son wanted his lineage to have a more illustrious name, and chose
Hōjō, after the line of hereditary regents of the
Kamakura shogunate, to which his wife also belonged. So he became
Hōjō Ujitsuna, and his father, Ise Shinkurō, was posthumously renamed
Hōjō Sōun. The Later Hōjō, sometimes known as the
Odawara Hōjō after their home castle of
Odawara in
Sagami Province, were not related to the earlier Hōjō clan. Their power rivaled that of the
Tokugawa clan, but eventually
Toyotomi Hideyoshi eradicated the power of the Hōjō clan in the
siege of Odawara (1590), banishing
Hōjō Ujinao and his wife
Toku Hime (a daughter of
Tokugawa Ieyasu) to
Mount Kōya, where Ujinao died in 1591. The tea master
Yamanoue Sōji, a disciple of
Sen no Rikyū, was under the patronage of the Odawara lords. Following their fall, he was brutally executed on orders by
Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The clan ruled
Sayama Domain in
Kawachi Province through the
Edo period. ==Heads==