Hōjō family

Family that were regents (shikken) and effective rulers of Japan 1203-1333, during most of the Kamakura (Minamoto) shogunate. Among its members were Hōjō Yasutoki (regent 1224-42), Hōjō Tokiyori (regent 1245-56), and Hōjō Shigetoki (1198-1261), a high official whose writings on politics were influential.

The Hōjō were related by marriage to Minamoto Yoritomo, the first shogun, and under his successors they held the real power, turning the shoguns into figureheads. The Hōjō ascendancy was confirmed by the Jōkyū War of 1221, when they put down a rebellion led by retired emperor Go-Toba (1180-1239). The Hōjō were also among the last to hold out against the unification of Japan in the 16th century under Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Their castle of Odawara blocked his access to the Kantō area of central Honshu until 1590 when their ally Tokugawa Ieyasu, to whom they were related by marriage, sided with Hideyoshi and the castle capitulated after a siege.