Tokugawa Ieyasu

Military History Companion: Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) had an unpromising childhood as hostage of the Imagawa, for whom he fought as a young man against Oda Nobunaga. His first experience of battle was at the siege of Terabe. When Imagawa Yoshimoto invaded Nobunaga's territories Ieyasu played a distinguished role in the capture of the fortress of Marune, where he made use of concentrated arquebus fire. Following the death of Imagawa Yoshimoto at the battle of Okehazama in 1560 Ieyasu allied himself to Oda Nobunaga and fought loyally at Azukizaka (1564) against the Ikkō-ikki sectarians. Ieyasu took part in the battle of the Anegawa (1570), when his army took much of the brunt of the fighting. He was defeated by Takeda Shingen at Mikata ga hara (1572), but avoided the loss of Hamamatsu castle by a tactical withdrawal and a night attack. He also accompanied Nobunaga in the relief of Nagashino castle in 1575, which led to the famous battle of Nagashino. The death of Nobunaga placed Ieyasu against Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but through adroit political skills Ieyasu avoided the fate of other rivals, and their major conflict at Nagakute (1584) ended in stalemate.

Following the defeat of the Hōjō in 1590, Ieyasu received their territories and transferred his capital to Edo (Tokyo). As his army had avoided service in Korea he was in a strong position when Hideyoshi died, and challenged the Toyotomi family for the succession against a powerful alliance under Ishida Mitsunari, whom he defeated at the epic battle of Sekigahara. Tokugawa Ieyasu became shogun in 1603, and finally vanquished the Toyotomi heir, Hideyori, with the long and bitter siege of Osaka castle in 1614-15. He died peacefully in bed, having established a dynasty that would last for two and a half centuries. Tokugawa Ieyasu is remembered as a skilled general and statesman, who laid the foundations for the long rule of his family.

— Stephen Turnbull

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Biography: Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, or military government, which maintained effective rule over Japan from 1600 until 1867.

The period from 1477 until 1568 was a time of disorder and disunity in Japan. The traditional government of the country, the imperial court at Kyoto, had 1 1/2 centuries earlier delegated ruling authority to the shogunate of the warrior family of Ashikaga, which also had its offices in Kyoto. But, although the Ashikaga shoguns had managed to maintain a loose control over much of the land until about 1477, thereafter their central power virtually disappeared. For the remainder of the 15th century and during the first half of the 16th, warrior families everywhere were constantly at war.

By about the 1550s, however, a group of daimyos (regional barons) had succeeded in establishing stable territorial domains throughout much of the country. In 1568 one of these daimyos, Oda Nobunaga, entered Kyoto, where, with the approval of the imperial court, he established himself as the new de facto hegemon of the central provinces of the main island of Honshu.

One of the chief reasons for Nobunaga's early success was the alliance he made with Tokugawa Ieyasu, the young daimyo of a neighboring domain. When Nobunaga undertook his campaign westward to Kyoto, Ieyasu provided invaluable service by protecting him from attack by potential enemies to the east.

From 1568 until his death in 1582, Nobunaga destroyed or secured the allegiance of his enemies near Kyoto and gradually began to spread his control to other parts of the country. He was treacherously killed by one of his leading generals, Akechi Mitsuhide, who in turn was almost immediately attacked and killed by another of Nobunaga's generals, Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Having avenged his lord's death, Hideyoshi undertook to complete the task of unification of Japan that Nobunaga had begun. By 1590 he had made himself the undisputed master of the country.

Rise of Ieyasu

After unifying the country, Hideyoshi arranged to have Ieyasu move his domain from the region of the Nagoya Plain to the eastern provinces of the Kanto. His intent was presumably to remove Ieyasu as far as possible from his own base in the central provinces. Yet in so doing he allowed Ieyasu to establish himself in the most agriculturally wealthy part of the country, from which the Tokugawa leader was able to assert his power on the national level after Hideyoshi's death.

Hideyoshi's final years were darkened by two unsuccessful attempts to invade Korea - in 1592 and 1597. Moreover, when he died in 1598, his successor, Hideyori, was a mere child of 5. Hideyoshi extracted vows of allegiance to Hideyori from the various leading daimyos, including Ieyasu. Yet no sooner had Hideyoshi died than the daimyos began to contend for power among themselves. Before long they had divided into two major factions, one headed by Ieyasu and the other in opposition to him. In 1600 they clashed in a great battle at Sekigahara which brought victory to Ieyasu and determined the course of Japanese history for the next 2 1/2 centuries.

Establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate

After the battle of Sekigahara all those daimyos who had not yet accepted Ieyasu's overlordship were obliged to do so. Although Ieyasu did not actually receive the title of shogun from the imperial court until 1603, for all practical purposes the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate, whose headquarters he established in Edo (present-day Tokyo) in the eastern provinces, began in 1600.

The establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate was in great measure a logical outcome of the institutional developments of the preceding century. Rather than seeking to pursue and completely humble his chief opponents after Sekigahara, Ieyasu settled for an overall national hegemony under which the daimyos retained virtually complete autonomy over their domains but in return paid allegiance to Edo and were under certain circumstances personally subject to its jurisdiction.

Three types of daimyos ruled the feudal domains that constituted Japan during the Tokugawa period: fudai, or hereditary daimyos, who had become the vassals of Ieyasu before the battle of Sekigahara; tozama, or outside daimyos, including both Ieyasu's allies and opponents at Sekigahara; and a small number of shimpan, or collateral daimyos, who were directly related to the Tokugawa family.

Of the two major types of daimyos, hereditary and outside, the former, as long-standing vassals, were allowed to hold posts in the Tokugawa shogunate, whereas the outside daimyos were theoretically barred from any participation whatever in the administrative affairs of the Edo government. However, all daimyos, with only a few exceptions based on special circumstances, were obliged to spend part of their time each year in attendance at the Shogun's court at Edo. This system of "alternate attendance," which was evolved during the first few decades of Tokugawa rule, was the chief means by which the Tokugawa exercised surveillance over the daimyos. When the daimyos were not in Edo, moreover, they were obliged to leave their wives and children there as hostages.

Ieyasu was immensely rich. By the time of the establishment of the shogunate he had acquired roughly one-quarter of the rice-producing land of the country as the private domain of the Tokugawa family. In addition, as shogun, he "nationalized" most of the important cities - including Kyoto (the seat of the imperial court), Osaka, and Nagasaki - as well as certain mining and other important sites. The additional revenues he was able to draw from these sources handsomely augmented his already preponderant income from agriculture.

Ieyasu and the Europeans

In 1600, the year of the battle of Sekigahara, the first English and Dutch arrived in Japan. These newcomers were Protestants and were quite willing to trade without engaging also in missionary activities. Ieyasu even elevated one of them, an Englishman named Will Adams, to the rank of retainer and made him the shogunate's official adviser on foreign affairs.

Yet, even though Ieyasu (like Hideyoshi before him) was personally most anxious to develop trade with the Europeans, and the arrival of the Protestants seemed to present an opportunity to dispense with the Christianizing which the Catholics insisted upon, there remained the problem of how to deal with the Portuguese and Spanish who were still in Japan.

Ieyasu became increasingly convinced that Christianity must be banned, and in his final years he took steps to enforce and to expand the original injunctions of Hideyoshi against the foreign religion and its missionaries. He even executed some native Christians who did not comply with his will, but it was not until the time of the second shogun, Hidetada, that the persecution of both European and Japanese Christians was undertaken with ferocity.

The leaders of the Tokugawa shogunate had become inordinately fearful that Christianity was subversive to Japanese society and that Tokugawa rule might be threatened by a league of foreign Christians (especially Portuguese and Spanish) and daimyos of the western provinces. This fearfulness contributed importantly to the final decision made in the 1630s to institute a national seclusion policy. According to the seclusion policy, all Japanese were forbidden henceforth to leave the country, and only the Dutch and Chinese were allowed to engage in trade on a strictly limited basis at the single port of Nagasaki in Kyushu.

It would be difficult to overstress the importance of the national seclusion policy on the history of the Tokugawa period. Without question it was the chief reason for the longevity of Tokugawa rule: more than 2 1/2 centuries of almost unbroken peace. Yet the Japanese had to pay a price for this age of peace, which was based on withdrawal from the outside world. It was during this period that the West surged ahead into the scientific and industrial revolutions; and when Japan finally reentered the international community in the mid-19th century, it was forced to deal with the Westerners on radically different terms.

Consolidation of Tokugawa Rule

Ieyasu was by nature an exceedingly cautious man. Mindful that many prominent chieftains earlier in Japanese history (as well as his two immediate predecessors, Nobunaga and Hideyoshi) had failed to perpetuate the rule of their families, he sought by careful stages to consolidate the governing position of the Tokugawa after the battle of Sekigahara.

Despite Ieyasu's great military victory in 1600, there remained the widespread feeling that Hideyoshi's young son Hideyori should by right ultimately succeed his father as national hegemon. Accordingly, although he took the title of shogun in 1603, Ieyasu allowed the Toyotomi and their supporters to harbor at least the hope that power would be transferred to Hideyori after he reached adulthood. This hope was greatly reduced in 1605, however, when Ieyasu resigned the office of shogun in favor of his own son Hidetada. Clearly this move could be interpreted only as an effort to minimize disruption within the shogunate after Ieyasu's death and thus to perpetuate Tokugawa rule.

But it was not until 1614 that Ieyasu finally decided to settle the Toyotomi issue once and for all. By means of highly contrived charges of rebellious intent on the part of Hideyori, he forced the Toyotomi and their supporters to take up a position of armed opposition to the Tokugawa in the great castle at Osaka, which had originally been constructed by Hideyoshi. In 1614 Ieyasu personally laid siege to the castle with a great force. But, much to his chagrin, he was unable to force its defenders (numbering perhaps 90,000) to capitulate.

To avoid further embarrassment, Ieyasu offered peace if Hideyori would agree to having the castle's outer defenses leveled. Yet no sooner had this been done than Ieyasu renewed his attack on the castle and slaughtered nearly all of its occupants, including Hideyori. Ieyasu had acted treacherously, but very efficiently, in eliminating the last major threat to the superiority of the Tokugawa.

Although Ieyasu had resigned the office of shogun in 1605 and had even "retired" to the town of Sumpu to the west of Edo, he had in no sense relinquished his rulership of the shogunate. Until his death in 1616, one year after victory at the battle of Osaka Castle, he remained the guiding influence in shogunate affairs.

The Tokugawa shogunate, even though it was based on a hegemony which allowed extensive autonomy to the various daimyo domains, was the first government in Japanese history (apart from Hideyoshi's, which had lasted only a few years) that was in a position to rule on a truly national scale. It had been founded by professional warriors, and many of its offices were organized along military lines. Nevertheless, it became the government of a country securely at peace, and the attitude of its officials was inevitably transformed more and more into that of civilian administrators.

The philosophy of rule and maintenance of social order that came to appeal most to the leaders of Tokugawa Japan was Confucianism or, more precisely, Neo-Confucianism, which had long been established as the orthodox sociopolitical creed of China. Neo-Confucian ideas had been introduced to Japan several centuries earlier from China, but they were of little practical value to the warring chieftains of the medieval age. The Tokugawa, however, found in this philosophy an eminently appropriate set of precepts for their exercise of national rule.

Neo-Confucianism "legitimized" the division of Japanese society into four major classes - samurai, peasants, artisans, and merchants - and the enforcement of strictly hierarchical personal relations as embodied particularly in the virtues of filial piety and loyalty. Neo-Confucian doctrine also endorsed the essentially anticommercial bias of a state whose chief form of economic wealth was agriculture. Commerce did, in fact, advance greatly during the Tokugawa period, but the shogunate always maintained the official attitude that artisans and merchants were less socially respectable than either samurai or peasants.

Ieyasu in History

When Ieyasu died in 1616, his son Hidetada had already been shogun for 11 years. Hidetada and his son, the third shogun, lemitsu, continued the general policies of the shogunate's founder. By the time of Iemitsu's death in 1651, the Tokugawa regime was firmly set in the form that it was to retain for 2 more centuries.

Whereas Nobunaga undertook unification and Hideyoshi completed it, Ieyasu made it enduring. The magnitude of Ieyasu's achievement as a dynastic founder is unchallengeable; yet his capacity as a military commander has perhaps been underrated because of unfortunate comparison with the superb generalship of Hideyoshi. Nevertheless, Ieyasu was without doubt one of the greatest field commanders and one of the greatest governmental administrators in Japanese history.

Following Japan's defeat in World War II there was a distinct emotional reaction against the historical memory of the Tokugawa period. It was felt that this age, with its stern "feudal" polity and, in particular, its unnatural policy of national seclusion, had somehow "perverted" Japan and had caused it to pursue the course that led ultimately to disaster in war. Since Japan's remarkable economic recovery in the 1950s and 1960s, however, there has been a mellowing of feeling and a greater willingness to note the praiseworthy features of the Tokugawa period and its rulers. One result of this has been a particular revival of interest in Ieyasu. He now enjoys a historical popularity commensurate with his distinguished role in the evolution of Japan.

Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康
1st Edo shogun

Tokugawa Ieyasu
Term	1603 – 1605
Predecessor	Sengoku period
Successor	Shogun: Tokugawa Hidetada
Offspring	Matsudaira Nobuyasu Kamohime Yūki Hideyasu Toku-hime Tokugawa Hidetada Others
Born	31 January 1543(1543-01-31)
Died	1 June 1616 (aged 73)
Father	Matsudaira Hirotada
Mother	Odainokata

Biography

Early life (1543–1556)

Tokugawa Ieyasu was born in Okazaki Castle in Mikawa^[1] on the 26th day of the twelfth month of the eleventh year of Tenbun, according to the Japanese calendar. Originally named Matsudaira Takechiyo (松平竹千代), he was the son of Matsudaira Hirotada (松平広忠), the daimyo of Mikawa, and Odainokata (於大の方), the daughter of a neighboring samurai lord Mizuno Tadamasa (水野忠政). Oddly, his mother and father were stepbrother and stepsister to each other. They were just 17 and 15 years old, respectively, when Ieyasu was born. Two years later, Odainokata was sent back to her family and the couple never lived together again. As both husband and wife remarried and both went on to have further children, Ieyasu in the end had 11 half-brothers and sisters.

The Matsudaira family was split in 1550: one side wanted to be vassals of the Imagawa clan, while the other side preferred the Oda. As a result, much of Ieyasu's early years were spent in danger as wars with the Oda and Imagawa clans were fought. This family feud was the reason behind the murder of Hirotada's father (Takechiyo's grandfather), Matsudaira Kiyoyasu (松平清康). Unlike his father and the majority of his branch of the family, Ieyasu's father, Hirotada, favored the Imagawa clan.

In 1548, when the Oda clan invaded Mikawa, Hirotada turned to Imagawa Yoshimoto, the head of the Imagawa clan, for help to repel the invaders. Yoshimoto agreed to help under the condition that Hirotada send his son Ieyasu (Takechiyo) to Sumpu as a hostage. Hirotada agreed. Oda Nobuhide, the leader of the Oda clan, learned of this arrangement and had Ieyasu abducted from his entourage en route to Sumpu. Ieyasu was just six years old at the time.

Nobuhide threatened to execute Ieyasu unless his father severed all ties with the Imagawa clan. Hirotada replied that sacrificing his own son would show his seriousness in his pact with the Imagawa clan. Despite this refusal, Nobuhide chose not to kill Ieyasu but instead held him for the next three years at the Manshoji Temple in Nagoya.

In 1549, when Ieyasu was 6, his father Hirotada died of natural causes. At about the same time, Oda Nobuhide died during an epidemic. The deaths dealt a heavy blow to the Oda clan. An army under the command of Imagawa Sessai laid siege to the castle where Oda Nobuhiro, Nobuhide's eldest son and the new head of the Oda, was living. With the castle about to fall, Imagawa Sessai offered a deal to Oda Nobunaga (Oda Nobuhide's second son). Sessai offered to give up the siege if Ieyasu was handed over to the Imagawa clan. Nobunaga agreed and so Ieyasu (now nine) was taken as a hostage to Sumpu. Here he lived a fairly good life as hostage and potentially useful future ally of the Imagawa clan until he was 15.

Rise to power (1556–1584)

In 1556, Ieyasu came of age, and, following tradition, changed his name to Matsudaira Jirōsaburō Motonobu (松平次郎三郎元信). One year later, at the age of 16 (according to East Asian age reckoning), he married his first wife and changed his name again to Matsudaira Kurandonosuke Motoyasu (松平蔵人佐元康). Allowed to return to his native Mikawa, the Imagawa ordered him to fight the Oda clan in a series of battles. Ieyasu won his first battle at the Siege of Terabe and later succeeded in delivering supplies to a border fort through a bold night attack.

In 1560 the leadership of the Oda clan had passed to the brilliant leader Oda Nobunaga. Yoshimoto, leading a large Imagawa army (perhaps 20,000 strong) then attacked the Oda clan territory. Ieyasu with his Mikawa troops captured a fort at the border and then stayed there to defend it. As a result, Ieyasu and his men were not present at the Battle of Okehazama where Yoshimoto was killed by Oda Nobunaga's surprise assault.

With Yoshimoto dead, Ieyasu decided to ally with the Oda clan. A secret deal was needed because Ieyasu's wife and infant son, Nobuyasu were held hostage in Sumpu by the Imagawa clan. In 1561, Ieyasu openly broke with the Imagawa and captured the fortress of Kaminojo. Ieyasu was then able to exchange his wife and son for the wife and daughter of the ruler of Kaminojo castle.

For the next few years Ieyasu set about reforming the Matsudaira clan and pacifying Mikawa. He also strengthened his key vassals by awarding them land and castles in Mikawa. They were: Honda Tadakatsu, Ishikawa Kazumasa, Koriki Kiyonaga, Hattori Hanzō, Sakai Tadatsugu, and Sakakibara Yasumasa.

Ieyasu defeated the military forces of the Mikawa Monto within Mikawa province. The Monto were a warlike group of monks that were ruling Kaga Province and had many temples elsewhere in Japan. They refused to obey Ieyasu's commands and so he went to war with them, defeating their troops and pulling down their temples. In one battle Ieyasu was nearly killed when he was struck by a bullet which did not penetrate his armor. Both Ieyasu's Mikawa troops and the Monto forces were using the new gunpowder weapons which the Portuguese had introduced to Japan just 20 years earlier.

In 1567, Ieyasu changed his name yet again, his new family name was Tokugawa and his given name was now Ieyasu. In so doing, he claimed descent from the Minamoto clan. No proof has actually been found for this claimed descent from Seiwa tennō, the 56th Emperor of Japan.^[2]

Ieyasu remained an ally of Oda Nobunaga and his Mikawa soldiers were part of Nobunaga's army which captured Kyoto in 1568. At the same time Ieyasu was expanding his own territory. He and Takeda Shingen, the head of the Takeda clan in Kai Province made an alliance for the purpose of conquering all the Imagawa territory. In 1570, Ieyasu's troops captured Tōtōmi Province while Shingen's troops captured Suruga province (including the Imagawa capital of Sumpu).

Ieyasu ended his alliance with Takeda and sheltered their former enemy, Imagawa Ujizane; he also allied with Uesugi Kenshin of the Uesugi clan—an enemy of the Takeda clan. Later that year, Ieyasu led 5,000 of his own men supporting Nobunaga at the Battle of Anegawa against the Azai and Asakura clans.

In October 1571, Takeda Shingen, now allied with the Hōjō clan, attacked the Tokugawa lands of Tōtōmi. Ieyasu asked for help from Nobunaga, who sent him some 3,000 troops. Early in 1573 the two armies met at the Battle of Mikatagahara. The Takeda army, under the expert direction of Shingen, hammered at Ieyasu's troops until they were broken. Ieyasu fled with just 5 men to a nearby castle. This was a major loss for Ieyasu, but Shingen was unable to exploit his victory because Ieyasu quickly gathered a new army and refused to fight Shingen again on the battlefield.

Fortune smiled on Ieyasu a year later when Takeda Shingen died at a siege early in 1573. Shingen was succeeded by his less capable son Takeda Katsuyori. In 1575, the Takeda army attacked Nagashino Castle in Mikawa province. Ieyasu appealed to Nobunaga for help and the result was that Nobunaga personally came at the head of his very large army (about 30,000 strong). The Oda-Tokugawa force of 38,000 won a great victory on June 28, 1575, at the Battle of Nagashino, though Takeda Katsuyori survived the battle and retreated back to Kai province.

For the next seven years, Ieyasu and Katsuyori fought a series of small battles. Ieyasu's troops managed to wrest control of Suruga province away from the Takeda clan.

In 1579, Ieyasu's wife, and his eldest son, Matsudaira Nobuyasu, were accused of conspiring with Takeda Katsuyori to assassinate Nobunaga. Ieyasu's wife was executed and Nobuyasu was forced to commit seppuku. Ieyasu then named his third and favorite son, Tokugawa Hidetada, as heir, since his second son was adopted by another rising power: Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the future ruler of all Japan.

The end of the war with Takeda came in 1582 when a combined Oda-Tokugawa force attacked and conquered Kai province. Takeda Katsuyori, as well as his eldest son Takeda Nobukatsu, were defeated at the Battle of Temmokuzan and then committed seppuku.

In late 1582, Ieyasu was near Osaka and far from his own territory when he learned that Nobunaga had been assassinated by Akechi Mitsuhide. Ieyasu managed the dangerous journey back to Mikawa, avoiding Mitsuhide's troops along the way, as they were trying to find and kill him. One week after he arrived in Mikawa, Ieyasu's army marched out to take revenge on Mitsuhide. But they were too late, Hideyoshi—on his own—defeated and killed Akechi Mitsuhide at the Battle of Yamazaki.

The death of Nobunaga meant that some provinces, ruled by Nobunaga's vassals, were ripe for conquest. The leader of Kai province made the mistake of killing one of Ieyasu's aides. Ieyasu promptly invaded Kai and took control. Hōjō Ujimasa, leader of the Hōjō clan responded by sending his much larger army into Shinano and then into Kai province. No battles were fought between Ieyasu's forces and the large Hōjō army and, after some negotiation, Ieyasu and the Hōjō agreed to a settlement which left Ieyasu in control of both Kai and Shinano provinces, while the Hōjō took control of Kazusa province (as well as bits of both Kai and Shinano province).

At the same time (1583) a war for rule over Japan was fought between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Shibata Katsuie. Ieyasu did not take a side in this conflict, building on his reputation for both caution and wisdom. Hideyoshi defeated Katsuie at the Battle of Shizugatake—with this victory, Hideyoshi became the single most powerful daimyo in Japan.

Ieyasu and Hideyoshi (1584–1598)

In 1584, Ieyasu decided to support Oda Nobukatsu, the eldest son and heir of Oda Nobunaga, against Hideyoshi. This was a dangerous act and could have resulted in the annihilation of the Tokugawa.

Main article: Battle of Komaki and Nagakute

Hideyoshi and Ieyasu played 'Go' at this board.

Tokugawa troops took the traditional Oda stronghold of Owari, Hideyoshi responded by sending an army into Owari. The Komaki Campaign was the only time any of the great unifiers of Japan fought each other: Hideyoshi vs. Ieyasu. In the event, Ieyasu won the only notable battle of the campaign at Nagakute. After months of fruitless marches and feints, Hideyoshi settled the war through negotiation. First he made peace with Oda Nobuo, and then he offered a truce to Ieyasu. The deal was made at the end of the year; as part of the terms Ieyasu's second son, O Gi Maru, became an adopted son of Hideyoshi.

Ieyasu's aide, Ishikawa Kazumasa, chose to join the pre-eminent daimyo and so he moved to Osaka to be with Hideyoshi. However, only a few other Tokugawa retainers followed this example.

Hideyoshi was understandably distrustful of Ieyasu, and five years passed before they fought as allies. The Tokugawa did not participate in Hideyoshi's successful invasions of Shikoku and Kyūshū.

In 1590 Hideyoshi attacked the last independent daimyo in Japan, Hōjō Ujimasa. The Hōjō clan ruled the eight provinces of the Kantō region in eastern Japan. Hideyoshi ordered them to submit to his authority and they refused. Ieyasu, though a friend and occasional ally of Ujimasa, joined his large force of 30,000 samurai with Hideyoshi's enormous army of some 160,000. Hideyoshi attacked several castles on the borders of the Hōjō clan with most of his army laying siege to the castle at Odawara. Hideyoshi's army captured Odawara after six months (oddly for the time period, deaths on both sides were few). During this siege, Hideyoshi offered Ieyasu a radical deal. He offered Ieyasu the eight Kantō provinces which they were about to take from the Hōjō in return for the five provinces that Ieyasu currently controlled (including Ieyasu's home province of Mikawa). Ieyasu accepted this proposal. Bowing to the overwhelming power of the Toyotomi army, the Hōjō accepted defeat, the top Hōjō leaders killed themselves and Ieyasu marched in and took control of their provinces, so ending the clan's reign of over 100 years.

Ieyasu now gave up control of his five provinces (Mikawa, Tōtōmi, Suruga, Shinano, and Kai) and moved all his soldiers and vassals to the Kantō region. He himself occupied the castle town of Edo in Kantō. This was possibly the riskiest move Ieyasu ever made — to leave his home province and rely on the uncertain loyalty of the formerly Hōjō samurai in Kantō. In the event, it worked out brilliantly for Ieyasu. He reformed the Kantō provinces, controlled and pacified the Hōjō samurai and improved the underlying economic infrastructure of the lands. Also, because Kantō was somewhat isolated from the rest of Japan, Ieyasu was able to maintain a unique level of autonomy from Hideyoshi's rule. Within a few years, Ieyasu had become the second most powerful daimyo in Japan. There is a Japanese proverb which likely refers to this event "Ieyasu won the Empire by retreating." ^[3]

In 1592, Hideyoshi invaded Korea as a prelude to his plan to attack China (see Japanese invasions of Korea [1592–1598] for more information about this campaign). The Tokugawa samurai never took part in this campaign. Early in 1593, Ieyasu was summoned to Hideyoshi's court in Nagoya (in Kyūshū, different from similarly spelled city in Owari Province), as a military advisor. He stayed there, off and on for the next five years. Despite his frequent absences, Ieyasu's sons, loyal retainers and vassals were able to control and improve Edo and the other new Tokugawa lands.

In 1593, Hideyoshi fathered a son and heir, Toyotomi Hideyori.

In 1598, with his health clearly failing, Hideyoshi called a meeting that would determine the Council of Five Elders who would be responsible for ruling on behalf of his son after his death. The five that were chosen as regents (tairō) for Hideyori were Maeda Toshiie, Mōri Terumoto, Ukita Hideie, Uesugi Kagekatsu, and Ieyasu himself, who was the most powerful of the five. This change in the pre-Sekigahara power structure became pivotal as Ieyasu turned his attention towards Kansai; and at the same time, other ambitious (albeit ultimately unrealized) plans, such as the Tokugawa initiative establishing official relations with Mexico and New Spain, continued to unfold and advance.^[4]

The Sekigahara Campaign (1598–1603)

Hideyoshi, after three more months of increasing sickness, died on September 18, 1598. He was nominally succeeded by his young son Hideyori but as he was just five years old, real power was in the hands of the regents. Over the next two years Ieyasu made alliances with various daimyo, especially those who had no love for Hideyoshi. Happily for Ieyasu, the oldest and most respected of the regents died after just one year. With the death of Regent Maeda Toshiie in 1599, Ieyasu led an army to Fushimi and took over Osaka Castle, the residence of Hideyori. This angered the three remaining regents and plans were made on all sides for war.

Opposition to Ieyasu centered around Ishida Mitsunari, a powerful daimyo but not one of the regents. Mitsunari plotted Ieyasu's death and news of this plot reached some of Ieyasu's generals. They attempted to kill Mitsunari but he fled and gained protection from none other than Ieyasu himself. It is not clear why Ieyasu protected a powerful enemy from his own men but Ieyasu was a master strategist and he may have concluded that he would be better off with Mitsunari leading the enemy army rather than one of the regents, who would have more legitimacy.^[5]

Nearly all of Japan's daimyo and samurai now split into two factions—Mitsunari's group and anti-Mitsunari Group. Ieyasu supported anti-Mitsunari Group, and formed them as his potential allies. Ieyasu's allies were the Date clan, the Mogami clan, the Satake clan and the Maeda clan. Mitsunari allied himself with the three other regents: Ukita Hideie, Mori Terumoto, and Uesugi Kagekatsu as well as many daimyo from the eastern end of Honshū.

In June 1600, Ieyasu and his allies moved their armies to defeat the Uesugi clan who was accused of planning to revolt against Toyotomi administration (Led by Ieyasu, top of Council of Five Elders). Before arriving to Uesugi's territory, Ieyasu had got information that Mitsunari and his allies moved their army against Ieyasu. Ieyasu held a meeting with daimyo, and they agreed to ally Ieyasu. He then led the majority of his army west towards Kyoto. In late summer, Ishida's forces captured Fushimi.

Ieyasu and his allies marched along the Tōkaidō, while his son Hidetada went along the Nakasendō with 38,000 soldiers. A battle against Sanada Masayuki in Shinano Province delayed Hidetada's forces, and they did not arrive in time for the main battle.

Main article: Battle of Sekigahara

This battle was the biggest and likely the most important battle in Japanese history. It began on October 21, 1600 with a total of 160,000 men facing each other. The Battle of Sekigahara ended with a complete Tokugawa victory.^[6] The Western bloc was crushed and over the next few days Ishida Mitsunari and many other western nobles were captured and killed. Tokugawa Ieyasu was now the de facto ruler of Japan.

Immediately after the victory at Sekigahara, Ieyasu redistributed land to the vassals who had served him. Ieyasu left some western daimyo un-harmed, such as the Shimazu clan, but others were completely destroyed. Toyotomi Hideyori (the son of Hideyoshi) lost most of his territory which were under management of western daimyo, and he was degraded to an ordinary daimyo, not a ruler of Japan. In later years the vassals who had pledged allegiance to Ieyasu before Sekigahara became known as the fudai daimyo, while those who pledged allegiance to him after the battle (in other words, after his power was unquestioned) were known as tozama daimyo. Tozama daimyo were considered inferior to fudai daimyo.

Shogun Ieyasu (1603–1605)

Tokugawa Ieyasu as shogun.

In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu received the title of shogun from Emperor Go-Yozei.^[7] Ieyasu was 60 years old. He had outlasted all the other great men of his times: Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, Shingen, Kenshin. He was the shogun and he used his remaining years to create and solidify the Tokugawa shogunate (That was eventually to become the Edo period, about two hundred years under Ieyasu's Shogunate) , the third shogunal government (after the Minamoto and the Ashikaga). He claimed descent from the Minamoto clan by way of the Nitta family. Ironically Ieyasu descendants would marry into the Taira clan and Fujiwara Clans. The Tokugawa Shogunate would rule Japan for the next 250 years.

Main article: Tokugawa Shogun

Following a well established Japanese pattern, Ieyasu abdicated his official position as shogun in 1605. His successor was his son and heir, Tokugawa Hidetada. This may have been done, in part to avoid being tied up in ceremonial duties, and in part to make it harder for his enemies to attack the real power center.^[8] The abdication of Ieyasu had no effect on the practical extent of his powers or his rule; but Hidetada nevertheless assumed a role as formal head of the bakufu bureaucracy.

The Tokugawa clan crest

Retired shogun (1605–1616)

Ieyasu, acting as the retired shogun (大御所, ōgosho^?), remained the effective ruler of Japan until his death. Ieyasu retired to Sunpu Castle in Sunpu, but he also supervised the building of Edo Castle, a massive construction project which lasted for the rest of Ieyasu's life. The end result was the largest castle in all of Japan, the costs for building the castle being borne by all the other daimyo, while Ieyasu reaped all the benefits. The central donjon, or tenshu, burned in the 1657 Meireki fire. Today, the Imperial Palace stands on the site of the castle.

Ogosho Ieyasu also supervised diplomatic affairs with the Netherlands and Spain. He chose to distance Japan from the Europeans starting in 1609, although the bakufu did give the Dutch exclusive trading rights and permitted them to maintain a "factory" for trading purposes. From 1605 till his death, Ieyasu consulted with an English Protestant pilot in Dutch employ, William Adams, who played a noteworthy role in forming and furthering the Shogunate's evolving relations with Spain and the Roman Catholic Church.^[9]

In 1611, Ieyasu, at the head of 50,000 men, visited Kyoto to witness the coronation of Emperor Go-Mizunoo. In Kyoto, Ieyasu ordered the remodeling of the imperial court and buildings, and forced the remaining western daimyo to sign an oath of fealty to him. In 1613, he composed the Kuge Shohatto' a document which put the court daimyo under strict supervision, leaving them as mere ceremonial figureheads. The influences of Christianity, which was beset by quarreling over the Protestant Reformation and its aftermath, on Japan were proving problematic for Ieyasu. In 1614, he signed the Christian Expulsion Edict which banned Christianity, expelled all Christians and foreigners, and banned Christians from practicing their religion. As a result, many Kirishitans (early Japanese Christians) fled to the Spanish Philippines.

In 1615, he prepared the Buke Shohatto, a document setting out the future of the Tokugawa regime.

Siege of Osaka

Main article: Siege of Osaka

Grave of Ieyasu in Tōshō-gū

The climax of Ieyasu's life was the siege of Osaka Castle (1614–1615). The last remaining threat to Ieyasu's rule was Hideyori, the son and rightful heir to Hideyoshi. He was now a young daimyo living in Osaka Castle. Many samurai who opposed Ieyasu rallied around Hideyori, claiming he was the rightful ruler of Japan. Ieyasu found fault with the opening ceremony of a temple built by Hideyori—it was as if Hideyori prayed for Ieyasu's death and the ruin of Tokugawa clan. Ieyasu ordered Toyotomi to leave Osaka Castle, but those in the castle refused and started to gather samurai into the castle. Then the Tokugawa, with a huge army led by Ogosho Ieyasu and Shogun Hidetada, laid siege to Osaka castle in what is now known as "the Winter Siege of Osaka." Eventually, Tokugawa made a deal threatening Hideyori's mother, Yodogimi, firing cannons towards the castle to stop the fighting. However, as soon as the treaty was agreed upon, Tokugawa filled Osaka Castle's moats with sand so his troops could go across them. Ieyasu returned to Sumpu once, but after Toyotomi refused another order to leave Osaka, he and his allied army of 155,000 soldiers attacked Osaka Castle again in "the Summer Siege of Osaka." Finally in late 1615, Osaka Castle fell and nearly all the defenders were killed including Hideyori, his mother (Hideyoshi's widow, Yodogimi), and his infant son. His wife, Senhime (a granddaughter of Ieyasu), was sent back to Tokugawa alive. With the Toyotomi finally extinguished, no threats remained to Tokugawa's domination of Japan.

The end of his life

In 1616, Ieyasu died at age 73.^[10]. The cause of death is thought to have been cancer or syphilis. The first Tokugawa shogun was posthumously deified with the name Tōshō Daigongen (東照大権現), the "Great Gongen, Light of the East". (A Gongen (the prefix Dai- meaning great) is believed to be a buddha who has appeared on Earth in the shape of a kami to save sentient beings). In life, Ieyasu had expressed the wish to be deified after his death in order to protect his descendants from evil. His remains were buried at the Gongen's mausoleum at Kunōzan, Kunōzan Tōshō-gū (久能山東照宮). After the first anniversary of his death, his remains were reburied at Nikkō Shrine, Nikkō Tōshō-gū (日光東照宮). His remains are still there. The mausoleum's architectural style became known as gongen-zukuri, that is gongen-style. ^[11]

Ieyasu as a person

Handprint of Ieyasu at Kunozan Toshogu

Ieyasu had a number of qualities that enabled him to rise to power. He was both careful and bold—at the right times, and at the right places. Calculating and subtle, Ieyasu switched alliances when he thought he would benefit from the change. He allied with the Hōjō clan; then he joined Hideyoshi's army of conquest, which destroyed the Hōjō clan; and he himself took over their lands. In this he was like other daimyo of his time. This was an era of violence, sudden death, and betrayal. He was not very well liked, and he was not personally popular. But he was feared and he was respected for his leadership and his cunning. For example, he wisely kept his soldiers out of Hideyoshi's campaign in Korea.

He was capable of great loyalty: once he allied with Oda Nobunaga, he never went against Nobunaga; and both leaders profited from their long alliance. He was known for being loyal towards his personal friends and vassals, whom he rewarded. However, he also remembered those who had wronged him in the past. It is said that Ieyasu executed a man who came into his power because he had insulted him when Ieyasu was young.

Ieyasu protected many former Takeda retainers from the wrath of Oda Nobunaga, who was known to harbor a bitter grudge towards the Takeda. He managed to successfully transform many of the retainers of the Takeda, Hōjō, and Imagawa clans—all whom he had defeated himself or helped to defeat—into loyal followers.

He had nineteen wives and concubines, by whom he had eleven sons and five daughters. The eleven sons of Ieyasu were Matsudaira Nobuyasu (松平信康), Yūki Hideyasu (結城秀康), Tokugawa Hidetada (徳川秀忠), Matsudaira Tadayoshi (松平忠吉), Takeda Nobuyoshi (武田信吉), Matsudaira Tadateru (松平忠輝), Matsuchiyo (松千代), Senchiyo (仙千代), Tokugawa Yoshinao (徳川義直), Tokugawa Yorinobu (徳川頼宣), and Tokugawa Yorifusa (徳川頼房). (In this listing, the two sons without surnames died before adulthood.) His daughters were Kame hime (亀姫), Toku hime (徳姫), Furi hime (振姫), Matsu hime (松姫) , Eishōin hime (_姫), and Ichi hime (市姫). He is said to have cared for his children and grandchildren, establishing three of them, Yorinobu, Yoshinao, and Yorifusa as the daimyo of Kii, Owari, and Mito provinces, respectively. At the same time, he could be ruthless when crossed. For example, he ordered the executions of his first wife and his eldest son—a son-in-law of Oda Nobunaga; Oda was also an uncle of Hidetada's wife Oeyo.

The butterfly mon of the Taira is called Ageha-cho (揚羽蝶) in Japanese.

After Hidetada became shogun, he married Oeyo of the Oda family of the Taira clan and they had two sons, Tokugawa Iemitsu and Tokugawa Tadanaga. They also had two daughters, one of whom, Sen hime, married twice. The other daughter, Kazuko hime, married Emperor Go-Mizunoo of descent from the Fujiwara clan.

Ieyasu's favorite pastime was falconry. He regarded it as excellent training for a warrior. "When you go into the country hawking, you learn to understand the military spirit and also the hard life of the lower classes. You exercise your muscles and train your limbs. You have any amount of walking and running and become quite indifferent to heat and cold, and so you are little likely to suffer from any illness."^[12]. Ieyasu swam often; even late in his life he is reported to have swum in the moat of Edo Castle.

Later in life he took to scholarship and religion, patronizing scholars like Hayashi Razan.^[13]

Two of his famous quotes:

"Life is like unto a long journey with a heavy burden. Let thy step be slow and steady, that thou stumble not. Persuade thyself that imperfection and inconvenience are the natural lot of mortals, and there will be no room for discontent, neither for despair. When ambitious desires arise in thy heart, recall the days of extremity thou has past through. Forbearance is the root of quietness and assurance forever. Look upon the wrath of the enemy. If thou knowest only what it is to conquer, and knowest not what it is like to be defeated, woe unto thee; it will fare ill with thee. Find fault with thyself rather than with others."

"The strong manly ones in life are those who understand the meaning of the word patience. Patience means restraining one's inclinations. There are seven emotions: joy, anger, anxiety, adoration, grief, fear, and hate, and if a man does not give way to these he can be called patient. I am not as strong as I might be, but I have long known and practiced patience. And if my descendants wish to be as I am, they must study patience."

He claimed that he fought, as a warrior or a general, in 90 battles.

In some sources Ieyasu is known to have the bad habit of biting his nails when nervous, especially before and during battle.

He was interested in various kenjutsu skills, was a patron of the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū school, and also had them as his personal sword instructors.

Ieyasu in popular culture

See Japanese historical people in popular culture.

Era of Ieyasu's rule

Ieyasu ruled directly as shogun or indirectly as Ogosho during the Keichō era (1596-1615).

Notes

^ [1]
^ Screech, T. (2006). Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1882. p.82.
^ Sadler, A.L. (1937). The Maker of Modern Japan, p. 164.
^ Nutail, Zelia. (1906). The Earliest Historical Relations Between Mexico and Japan, p. 2; "Japan to Decorate King Alfonso Today; Emperor's Brother Nears Madrid With Collar of the Chrysanthemum for Spanish King." New York Times, November 3, 1930.
^ Sadler, A.L. p. 187
^ Titsingh, I. (1834). Annales des empereurs du Japon, p. 405.
^ Titsingh, p. 409.
^ Wolferen, K. The Enigma of Japanese Power. p. 28
^ Nutail, pp. 6-45.
^ Minamoto no Ieyasu was born in Tenbun 11, on the 26th day of the 12th month (1542) and he died in Genna 2, on the 17th day of the 4th month (1616); and thus, his contemporaries would have said that he lived 75 years. In this period, children were considered one year old at birth and became two the following New Year's Day; and all people advanced a year that day, not on their actual birthday. Screech, pp. 85, 234; Titsingh, p. 10.
^ JAANUS / Gongen-zukuri 権現造
^ Sadler, p. 344.
^ Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1956). Kyoto: the Old Capital of Japan, 794-1969, p. 418.

References

Precepts on the secret of success in life drafted by Tokugawa Ieyasu from the collection of Nikkō Tōshō-gū.

Bolitho, Harold. (1974). Treasures among men; the fudai daimyo in Tokugawa Japan. New Haven: Yale University Press.
McClain, James. (1991). The Cambridge History of Japan Volume 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McLynn, Frank. (2008). The Greatest Shogun, BBC History Magazine, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp 52-53.
Nutail, Zelia. (1906). The Earliest Historical Relations Between Mexico and Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ponsonby-Fane, Richard A.B. (1956). Kyoto: the Old Capital of Japan. Kyoto: Ponsonby-Fane Memorial Society.
Sadler, A.L. (1937). The Maker of Modern Japan.
Sansom, George. (1961). A History of Japan, 1334-1615. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-0525-9
Screech, Timon. (2006). Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0-7007-1720-X
Titsingh, Isaac. (1822). Illustrations of Japan. London: Ackerman.
Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). [Siyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652], Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland.
Conrad Totman, Conrad. (1967). Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1600-1843. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Preceded by Sengoku period	Edo Shogun: Tokugawa Ieyasu 1603-1605	Succeeded by Tokugawa Hidetada

v • d • e Prominent people of the Sengoku period

Three major daimyo	Oda Nobunaga · Toyotomi Hideyoshi · Tokugawa Ieyasu

Other daimyo	Azai Nagamasa · Chōsokabe Motochika · Date Masamune · Hōjō Sōun · Hōjō Ujimasa · Imagawa Yoshimoto · Maeda Toshiie · Matsunaga Hisahide · Mōri Motonari · Ōtomo Sōrin · Saitō Dōsan · Sanada Masayuki · Shimazu Yoshihiro · Tachibana Ginchiyo · Takeda Shingen · Uesugi Kenshin · Uesugi Kagekatsu · Ukita Hideie

Other notable military individuals	Akechi Mitsuhide · Fukushima Masanori · Fūma Kotarō · Hattori Hanzō · Honda Tadakatsu · Honganji Kennyo · Ii Naomasa · Ishida Mitsunari · Ishikawa Goemon · Katō Kiyomasa · Maeda Keiji · Miyamoto Musashi · Mori Ranmaru · Naoe Kanetsugu · Oda Nobutada · Ōtani Yoshitsugu · Saika Magoichi · Sanada Nobuyuki · Sanada Yukimura · Sasaki Kojirō · Shibata Katsuie · Shima Sakon · Takeda Katsuyori · Takenaka Shigeharu · Toyotomi Hideyori · Yamamoto Kansuke

Others	Emperor Ōgimachi · Hosokawa Gracia · Komatsuhime · Izumo no Okuni · Nōhime · Oichi

Tokugawa Shogunate -- Tokugawa Ieyasu's Descendants

Ieyasu⁽¹⁾

Hidetada⁽²⁾

Yorinobu

Iemitsu⁽³⁾

Mitsusada

Ietsuna⁽⁴⁾

Tsunayoshi⁽⁵⁾

Tsunashige

Yoshimune⁽⁸⁾

Ienobu⁽⁶⁾

Ieshige⁽⁹⁾

Ietsugu⁽⁷⁾

Ieharu⁽¹⁰⁾

Ienari⁽¹¹⁾

Ieyoshi⁽¹²⁾

Iesada⁽¹³⁾

Iemochi⁽¹⁴⁾

Yoshinobu⁽¹⁵⁾

All Tokugawa shoguns claim descent from Ieyasu, who is recognized as the founder of this dynasty. The broken lines indicate adoptions within the shogunal clan.

v • d • e Tokugawa Shogunate -- Chronology, Dates, Paternity

Ieyasu • (b. 1543–1616) • 1st shogun • (ruled 1603–1605) • son of Matsudaira Hirotada

Hidetada • (b. 1579–1632) • 2nd shogun • (r. 1605–1623) • son of Ieyasu

Iemitsu • (b. 1604–1651) • 3rd shogun • (r. 1623–1651) • son of Hidetada

Ietsuna • (b. 1641–1680) • 4th shogun • (r. 1651–1680) • son of Iemitsu

Tsunayoshi • (b. 1646–1709) • 5th shogun • (r. 1680–1709) • son of Iemitsu, brother of Ietsuna

Ienobu • (b. 1662–1712) • 6th shogun • (r. 1709–1712) • son of Tokugawa Tsunashige

Ietsugu • (b. 1709–1716) • 7th shogun • (r. 1713–1716) • son of Ienobu

Yoshimine • (b. 1684–1751) • 8th shogun • (r. 1716–1745) • son of Tokugawa Mitsusada

Ieshige • (b. 1711–1761) • 9th shogun • (r. 1745–1760) • son of Yoshimine

Ieharu • (b. 1737–1786) • 10th shogun • (r. 1760–1786) • son of Ieshige

Ienari • (b. 1773–1841) • 11th shogun • (r. 1787–1837) • adopted son of Ieharu

Ieyoshi • (b. 1793–1853) • 12th shogun • (r. 1837–1853) • son of Ianari

Iesada • (b. 1824–1858) • 13th shogun • (r. 1853–1858) • son of

Iemochi • (b. 1846–1866) • 14th shogun • (r. 1858–1866) • son of Tokugawa Nariyuki

Yoshinobu • (b. 1837–1913) • 15th shogun • (r. 1867–1868) • son of Tokugawa Nariaki

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