The Uesugi of eastern Japan (their domain at one point encompassed much of the Kanto region and
Echigo province) were descended from
Fujiwara Yoshikado, a daijô-daijin in the 9th Century, whose descendant Shigefusa adopted the name Uesugi in the 13th Century. The Uesugi were related to the Ashikaga and became very powerful in the Muromachi Period and for many years provided deputy governors of the Kanto Ashikaga. By the opening of the Sengoku Period the Uesugi were represented by two main branches (a third, the Inukake, having died out in the 15th Century), the
Ogigayatsu-Uesugi and
Yamanouchi-Uesugi. These had become open rivals in the mid-15th Century and so vied for power in the Kanto. By the start of the 16th Century the Ogigayatsu were based at
Kawagoe castle in
Musashi province while the seat of Yamanouchi power was at Hirai in Kôzuke. The Ogigayatsu had traditionally relied on the Otô family while the Yamanouchi counted the Nagao of
Echigo province as a pillar of their strength. The surging expansion of the
Hôjô into the lower Kanto after
1533 ultimately forced the two branches of the Uesugi to join forces. Kawagoe fell to
Hôjô Ujitsuna in
1537 and in
1545 both the Ogigayatsu and the Yamanouchi shared defeat in attempting to regain it. Although this effectively marked the end of the Ogigayatsu as a viable independent power, Yamanouchi-Uesugi Norimasa, whose
Hirai castle fell to the Hôjô in
1551, took up with his retainer
Nagao Kagetora in Echigo. In
1561, while campaigning against the Hôjô in
Sagami province, Kagetora adopted the name Uesugi and the title of Kanto-kanrei. By dint of this the Uesugi survived the sengoku period and became a notable Edo daimyô house, although owing to
Uesugi Kagekatsu’s support of
Ishida Mitsunari in the
Sekigahara Campaign (
1600), they were much reduced in power.
| Generals of the Uesugi clan during the Sengoku Period
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