A 'jo' is a unit of area smaller than a 'gun' (county) or 'go' (village), and unlike other major armed groups in Togoku (the eastern part of Japan, particularly Kanto region) who ruled territories of 'gun' or larger area (e.g. the Miura, Chiba, Koyama and Chichibu clans) and had been scattering their powerful branch families across Togoku since generations before, the Hojo clan did not have any such branch families.
「条」とは、郡・郷よりさらに小さい規模の領域を示す単位であり、郡規模あるいはそれ以上の範囲に領域支配を展開する他の東国有力武士団である三浦氏・千葉氏・小山氏・秩父氏などは、どれも何代か前から多くの有力な一族を各地に分派させているが、北条氏にはそうした一族が少しもみられない。