7 Tokugawa Ieyasu 7

Tokugawa Ieyasu

(b. Jan. 31, 1543, Okazaki, Japan—d. June 1, 1616, Sumpu)

T

okugawa Ieyasu was the founder of the last shogunate
in Japan—the Tokugawa shogunate, which lasted
from 1603 to 1867.
Ieyasu was born as Matsudaira Takechiyo into the
family of a local warrior situated several miles east of
modern Nagoya, one of many such families struggling to
survive in a brutal age of endemic civil strife. In 1547 mil-
itary adversity compelled his father to send him away as
a hostage to the Imagawa family, powerful neighbours
headquartered at Sumpu (now the city of Shizuoka) to
the east. In the late 1550s he took a wife, fathered the
first of several sons, and began to acquire military experi-
ence by leading forces on behalf of Imagawa Yoshimoto,
the clan leader.
In 1560 Imagawa Yoshimoto was slain during a battle
with Oda Nobunaga, who was rapidly gaining power.
Within months young Ieyasu took steps to ally himself
with Nobunaga, at the same time pacifying the new and
inept leader of the Imagawa house long enough to recall
his wife and son from Sumpu. During the later 1560s the
Imagawa domain disintegrated, and Ieyasu expanded to
the east as opportunity permitted. Relying heavily on his
alliance with the now-mighty Nobunaga, Ieyasu survived
the challenges of endemic war and slowly extended his
territory until, by the early 1580s, he had become an impor-
tant daimyo (feudal baron), in control of the fertile and
populous area stretching from Okazaki eastward to the
mountain barrier at Hakone.
In 1582 Nobunaga was wounded by a rebellious subor-
dinate and committed suicide. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, his
most brilliant general, quickly avenged the death and