Who was this person?
The warlord who founded the Edo shogunate. Born to a minor lord in Mikawa, he spent his childhood as a hostage of the Imagawa and others. Allied with Oda Nobunaga and later serving Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he won the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, became shogun in 1603 and destroyed the Toyotomi at Osaka, laying the foundation of the roughly 260-year Edo period.
| Name | Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康) |
|---|---|
| Born–died | 1543 – 1616 |
| Period | Sengoku–Edo |
| Birthplace | Okazaki Castle, Mikawa Province (now Okazaki, Aichi) |
| Also known as | Takechiyo (childhood name), Matsudaira Motoyasu, Ōgosho |
| Main achievements |
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Born a son of Matsudaira Hirotada, lord of Okazaki castle in Mikawa (Aichi); his childhood name was Takechiyo. The Matsudaira were a small house squeezed between the Imagawa to the east and the Oda to the west. While he was small, his mother Odai was divorced for family reasons and left.
On his way to the Imagawa as a hostage he was betrayed and carried off to the Oda. Two years later his father died and he was exchanged and moved to the Imagawa seat at Sunpu (Shizuoka). He spent his boyhood as a hostage, but gained learning and martial skills under the Imagawa.
He married Sena (Lady Tsukiyama), a niece of Imagawa Yoshimoto, and went to war for the first time the next year.
When Imagawa Yoshimoto was killed at Okehazama, he returned amid the chaos to his home castle of Okazaki and broke free of the Imagawa, at 17.
He concluded the Kiyosu alliance with Oda Nobunaga, which held for twenty years until Nobunaga's death.
He struggled against an Ikkō uprising joined by many of his own retainers, but put it down by the next year; overcoming it strengthened the bonds of his vassals.
Having unified Mikawa, he changed his surname to Tokugawa with court permission.
He fought Takeda Shingen's great army at Mikatagahara, was badly beaten and barely fled back to Hamamatsu castle. A story says he had his anguished face painted as a lesson to himself (the "grimace portrait"; debated).
Suspected by Nobunaga of secret dealings with the Takeda, he lost his wife Lady Tsukiyama, and his eldest son Nobuyasu took his own life (the reasons are debated)—a great sorrow for Ieyasu.
He was in Sakai when the Honnō-ji Incident broke out and fled home to Mikawa over dangerous mountain paths through Iga. Afterwards he took Kai and Shinano, left masterless.
With Nobunaga's son Nobukatsu he fought Hashiba Hideyoshi and won at Nagakute. But Nobukatsu made peace with Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu eventually submitted.
By Hideyoshi's order he moved to the Kantō after the Hōjō's fall and entered Edo Castle, starting from scratch to build a town on Edo's marshy land.
Hideyoshi asked him, as foremost of the Five Elders, to support Hideyori. After Hideyoshi's death he made marriage alliances with other lords one after another, building his power.
He fought Ishida Mitsunari's Western Army at Sekigahara. With Kobayakawa Hideaki and others defecting to his side, he won in about a day and took real power over the realm.
At 60 he became shogun and founded the shogunate in Edo. Two years later he passed the office to his son Hidetada, showing that the Tokugawa would hold it by inheritance.
He moved to Sunpu castle and, as ōgosho (retired shogun), kept real power. He restored relations with Korea, permitted trade with the Dutch and English, and used William Adams as a diplomatic adviser.
Claiming that the inscription on the bell of Hōkō-ji, built by the Toyotomi, cursed him, he attacked Osaka Castle. A truce followed, under which he had the castle moats filled in.
He attacked Osaka Castle again and destroyed the Toyotomi. He issued the Buke Shohatto laws governing lords, and the long age of war came to an end (the Genna peace).
He became Grand Minister but soon died at Sunpu at 73. He was later enshrined at Nikkō Tōshōgū. The Edo shogunate went on to last some 260 years.
A. The warlord who founded the Edo shogunate. Born to a minor lord in Mikawa, he spent his childhood as a hostage of the Imagawa and others. Allied with Oda Nobunaga and later serving Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he won the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, became shogun in 1603 and destroyed the Toyotomi at Osaka, laying the foundation of the roughly 260-year Edo period.
A. Period: Sengoku–Edo. Born in 1543, died in 1616.
A. Tokugawa Ieyasu was born in Okazaki Castle, Mikawa Province (now Okazaki, Aichi).
A. In 1603, when Tokugawa Ieyasu was appointed shogun. Two years later, in 1605, he passed the title to his son Hidetada but kept real power as retired shogun (Ōgosho) in Sunpu (Shizuoka).
See also: Wikipedia (ja) / Wikipedia (en) / Wikipedia (fr) / Wikipedia (zh) / Wikidata
Follow this life (autoplay)Imagawa YoshimotoTakeda ShingenOda NobunagaIshida MitsunariKobayakawa HideakiŌta DōkanTaigen SessaiTakigawa Kazumasu
Chōsokabe MotochikaHasegawa TōhakuToyotomi HidenagaKuki YoshitakaKanō EitokuFuruta OribeTakenaka Shigeharu (Hanbei)Azai Nagamasa
People of the Sengoku/Azuchi-Momoyama period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.