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Tokugawa Ieyasu

© John Walsh

Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) is one of the most famous and important figures in Japanese history. Born into a comparatively minor warrior family, the young Tokugawa (with the birth surname of Takechiyo) was born into a society in which many different clans fought amongst themselves violently for status and position. He was born in Okazaki, a few miles east of what is now Nagoya. By the time he was seven, not only had changing alliances caused an estrangement between his parents and then he himself was forced to go and live with the Imagawa family as a hostage. This kind of arrangement was quite common for the times and helped to keep peace between at least some of the competing interests, who were reluctant to attack potential enemies if they held members of their family who would be required to pay a heavy price for the action.

Tokugawa's father was murdered and his family clan was almost totally destroyed by warfare. Yet for he himself, life was not too bad as the Imagawa family ensured that he received proper training as a future warrior and leader. He married and also began a passion for falconry. He put his learning to good use when, in 1560, the leader of the Imagawa family was killed in battle and Tokugawa returned to claim the leadership of what remained of his family's holdings. He swiftly set about restoring its fortunes through good governance and strong military leadership, at both of which arts he excelled. Throughout the remainder of that decade and those that followed, he expanded his family holdings, particularly at the expense of the Imagawa family which had begun to unravel as a result of poor leadership. Ultimately, Tokugawa established his headquarters at the town of Sumpu where he had himself been held as a hostage. During this period, he worked to support the pre-eminent daimyo Hideyoshi and, as a result, was awarded the fiefdom of the Hojo family, whom Tokugawa had starved into submission. This meant that Tokugawa had to relocate his holdings again and provided both threat and opportunity. The threat was from Hideyoshi himself who already viewed him as a potentially potent force and might act against him if his strength grew much more. The opportunity was that he had a free hand to create a new and centralised state from the start, unencumbered by ties of loyalty to retainers that prevented him from acting thus in his homeland. As it was, he manoeuvred and administered his way into becoming one of the most significant figures in Japan by the death of Hideyoshi and expected, therefore, to participate in the struggle of the daimyos which would determine who would achieve the dominant role in Japan.

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