He was born the heir of Imagawa Yoshimoto, lord of Suruga and Totomi. His mother was a daughter of Takeda Nobutora of Kai and an elder sister of Takeda Shingen. The Imagawa were a noble Ashikaga branch, and Sunpu, visited by many Kyoto courtiers, flourished with court culture such as waka and kemari.
As part of the Kai-Sagami-Suruga alliance among the Imagawa, Takeda and Hojo, he married Hojo Ujiyasu's daughter, Lady Hayakawa. Bound by marriages, the Imagawa could turn their strength west toward Owari and Mikawa.
Around this time his father Yoshimoto is said to have handed him the headship. Dates vary, but Ujizane is thought to have run Suruga while his father focused on the west, including Mikawa. Ujizane issued many documents to temples, shrines and merchants.
His father Yoshimoto, invading Owari, was killed in Oda Nobunaga's surprise attack at Okehazama. Many senior retainers were also lost, and Ujizane, 22, had to carry the badly wounded Imagawa house alone. The decline of the Imagawa began here.
Matsudaira Motoyasu of Mikawa, later Tokugawa Ieyasu, raised under the Imagawa, broke away and allied with Nobunaga. Local lords in Totomi then defected one after another. Ujizane fought to suppress them but could not stop his domain from fraying.
His uncle Takeda Shingen broke the alliance and invaded Suruga, while Tokugawa Ieyasu advanced into Totomi. Many retainers went over to the Takeda, and Ujizane was driven from Sunpu to Kakegawa Castle in Totomi. The alliance with his mother's family thus collapsed.
Besieged by Ieyasu at Kakegawa, he held out nearly half a year, then accepted terms to surrender the castle. Ujizane moved to Sagami, relying on his wife's family, the Hojo. The Imagawa as a daimyo house effectively ended here.
When Hojo Ujiyasu died and his heir Ujimasa allied again with the Takeda, Ujizane left Sagami. He turned to his former enemy Tokugawa Ieyasu and lived under his protection. Ieyasu, who had spent his childhood with the Imagawa, took in his former lord's son.
The Shincho Koki records that in Kyoto, at the request of Oda Nobunaga, who had killed his father, he performed kemari at Shokokuji. That year, around Nagashino, he is also said to have taken the field on the Tokugawa side. His face as a man of culture grew more prominent than as a warrior.
After long years in Kyoto exchanging waka with courtiers, Ujizane is said to have met Ieyasu at Sunpu around this time. He then moved to Edo. Many of his waka survive, and he is highly regarded as a cultivated man.
His wife Lady Hayakawa, who had long shared his joys and hardships, died. Married in from the Hojo, she followed her husband from place to place after the Imagawa fell and supported him throughout. The couple is said to have been close.
Ujizane died in Edo. Though the Imagawa as daimyo were gone, his descendants kept the name as koke, masters of ceremony for the Edo shogunate. In the Warring States storm, his was a life that survived not by arms but by culture and connections.
Hōjō UjiyasuImagawa YoshimotoTakeda ShingenOda NobunagaTokugawa Ieyasu
Ashikaga YoshiakiMaeda ToshiieHōjō UjimasaAshikaga YoshihideNabeshima NaoshigeHonda MasanobuChōsokabe MotochikaHasegawa Tōhaku
People of the Sengoku/Azuchi-Momoyama period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.