Imagawa Ujitoyo (今川氏豊)
Ujitoyo IMAGAWA (date of birth and death unknown) was a military commander in the period of warring states. He was the youngest child of Ujichika IMAGAWA, provincial constable of Suruga Province. He was a younger brother of Yoshimoto IMAGAWA. His childhood name was Chikuomaru. He was the lord of Nagoya-jo Castle. The name of government office was the vice-minister of Left Division of Bureau of Horses. Some believed he was the same person as Hikogoro IMAGAWA, who died on the same day in 1536 as Ujiteru IMAGAWA, an older brother and the head of Imagawa family, but recent studies regard him as a different person. Additionally, the name Ujitoyo does not appear in properly handed-down documents of the Imagawa clan, and some say that he was not the child of Ujichika, but a child from a branch.
In 1515, Ujichika IMAGAWA fought and won against the governor of Owari Province, Yoshitatsu SHIBA, in Totomi Province, which caused the power of Shiba clan to decline. From 1521 to 1528, Ujichika constructed a castle (Nagoya-jo Castle [first written as 那古野城, and later written as 名古屋城]) in Nagoya, Owari Province, which was once the territory of the Nagoya clan, and appointed Ujitoyo as the lord. Ujitoyo married the daughter of Yoshitatsu SHIBA.
The Nagoya clan was a family of the Imagawa clan who were invested with Owari Province as the local governor when Nakaaki IMAGAWA became the military governor of Owari from 1390 to 1427, and it is believed that Ujitoyo was adopted by them.
In 1532, troops invaded their castle in a clever scheme by Shobata-jo Castle lord, Nobuhide ODA, and the castle was surrendered.
According to "Nagoya Kassen-ki" (Records of battles in Nagoya), Ujitoyo enjoyed renga (linked verse) very much, and Nobuhide, who set his eyes on this, participated frequently in the renga-kai (a gathering of linked verse) held at Nagoya-jo Castle by sojourning for days eventually earned the trust of Ujitoyo. Nobuhide built a window in the keep of a castle, and Ujitoyo completely trusted him, thinking it was for the splendor of enjoying the summer breeze. One day, when Nobuhide collapsed in the castle and requested to 'leave a will for the vassals,' Ujitoyo allowed the request in sympathy, and the vassals of Nobuhide entered the castle. In that night, Nobuhide set fire to the castle with his own forces which he abruptly brought inside the castle, and captured the castle by attacking it from the inside. Ujitoyo begged for his life and was saved, and fled to Kyoto relying on connections of his wife.
Since it was described in "Tokitsugu Kyoki" (Dairy of Tokitsugu YAMASHINA) that when Tokitsugu YAMASHINA and Masatsuna ASUKAI taught kemari (a game played by aristocrats in the Heian period) at the Shobata-jo Castle to Nobuhide ODA and other Oda family members in 1533, Chikuomaru (Ujitoyo) IMAGAWA was also invited, which has prompted some to say that the takeover of Nagoya-jo Castle was in 1538.
Later, Nagoya-jo Castle was handed down to Nobuhide's legitimate son, Nobunaga ODA.
The reasons why he did not return to Suruga and fled to Kyoto after losing the Nagoya-jo Castle and why he did not take part in the Hanakura War, a succession dispute in the Imagawa family are unknown. Thus, some people doubt that he was not the child of Ujichika.