Born at Hamamatsu in Tōtōmi, the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu. After the death of his elder brother Nobuyasu and other events, he was raised as heir.
He went to Kyoto and met Toyotomi Hideyoshi, receiving from him the character "Hide" and taking the name Hidetada.
He married Gō, daughter of Azai Nagamasa and Oichi and younger sister of Yodo-dono. Their children included the future third shogun Iemitsu and Senhime.
At the time of Sekigahara he led a large army down the Nakasendō but was held up by Sanada Masayuki at Ueda castle and missed the decisive battle, earning a stern rebuke from Ieyasu.
Ieyasu passed the shogunate to him and he became the second shogun, showing the world that the office would stay in the Tokugawa family.
After the Toyotomi fell in the Summer Siege of Osaka, he issued the Laws for Military Houses, the rules for the court and nobles, and the one-castle-per-province order, establishing controls over daimyō and court.
Ieyasu died and Hidetada began ruling in his own right. He restricted European ships to the ports of Hirado and Nagasaki.
He took a hard line with daimyō, stripping Fukushima Masanori of his domain for repairing Hiroshima castle without permission.
He married his daughter Kazuko to Emperor Go-Mizunoo, strengthening ties with the court.
He passed the shogunate to his son Iemitsu but kept real power as retired shogun.
He died at Edo castle, the shogun who consolidated the foundations of the shogunate Ieyasu had founded.
Toyotomi HideyoshiTokugawa IeyasuAzai NagamasaSanada MasayukiFukushima MasanoriYodo-donoSenhimeFuruta Oribe
Hon'ami KōetsuYagyū MunenoriKasuga no TsuboneKobori EnshūHayashi RazanMiyamoto MusashiIngenMatsudaira Nobutsuna
People of the Edo period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.