Tokugawa Ieyasu

The crucial battle in this struggle was that of Sekigahara, which was fought in 1600 and at which Tokugawa's army was triumphant. After this, he engaged on a lengthy programme of reorganisation which sent enemies to distant and unimportant lands and allies to closer areas - although not too close. Tokugawa was well-aware of the truth in the axiom: keep friends close but enemies closer. In order to keep troublesome daimyos out of trouble, he instructed his son, Hidetada, to organise them to build the castle at Edo and, by the time of Tokugawa's death, this had become the largest castle in the world. In the meantime, he had prevailed upon the more or less impotent imperial court to grant him the title of shogun - general of generals - and he took over many of the functions of government, including dealing with diplomatic relations.

This included dealing with the newly arrived Europeans from Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands. He welcomed trade and saw it as a way to obtain firearms and other useful imports without having to deal with the overweening Ming Dynasty of China. His decision to allow the Europeans to spread their Christian faith did not seem controversial at first but a string of incident involving public disorder led him to believe that the priests were a threat to the security of Japan and he subsequently worked to have them evicted from the country.

However, Japanese interests became much more actively encouraged internationally and Japanese influence in Southeast Asia, for example, increased markedly from the time of his reign.

Tokugawa's last few years were also spent in eliminating the last few rivals for power in Japan and by the time he died in 1616 he had managed to unify the country and provide it with a single focal point of rule.

John Walsh, Shinawatra International University, May 2005. Blog: http://jcwalsh.bravejournal.com

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