Tokugawa Ieyasu – Wikipedia

Tokugawa IEYASU ( Tokugawa Ieyasu ^? , born the January 31, 1543 and dead the first ^is June 1616 ) is Daimyo then Shogun from Japan.

He is the last of the three unifiers of Japan at the Sengoku era, after Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (also called “Hashiba”).

TOKUGAWA IEYASU NAîT LE January 31, 1543 under the name of “Matsudaira Takechiyo”. He is the heir to the Matsudaira clan, a small clan in the province of Mikawa (in the current prefecture of Aichi), torn between the powerful clans Oda and Imagawa.

In 1548, the ODA invaded Mikawa. Ieyasu’s father, Matsudaira Hirotada, asks Imagawa’s help Yoshimoto, Daimyo of the Imagawa clan, who accepts on the condition that Hirotada sends him his son as a step. Hirotada runs, and Ieyasu therefore leaves for Sunpu (current Shizuoka). But Oda Nobuhide, the Daimyo of the Oda clan, has a wind of tract and he intercepts Ieyasu and his suite. He will then threaten Hirotada to kill his son if he does not reject his pact with Imagawa Yoshimoto to ally himself with the ODA, Hirotada refuses, arguing that leaving his son dying would only seal the pact even more. Nobuhide will ultimately do no trouble in Ieyasu.

The following year, in 1549, Hirotada died and Nobuhide succumbed to an epidemic, leaving the ODA clan in a serious disorganization. Imagawa Yoshitomo jumps at the opportunity and sends Imagawa Sessai besieging the castle where Oda Nobuhiro, eldest son and successor to Nobuhide is located. The headquarters quickly turn to the advantage of the Imagawa, but Sessai meets Oda Nobunaga, younger son of Nobuhide, in order to offer him a market: he will raise the seat provided that the Oda delivers to him Ieyasu. ODA can only accept the market and Ieyasu arrives in Sunpu the next day. He will be treated there. Thus, from its six years to his fourteen years, Ieyasu will remain the hostage of the ODA then of the Imagawa ^{[ first ]} .

In 1556, Ieyasu obtained the right to return to his mikawa lands. Then he married for the first time with Tsukiyama-Dono, the niece of Imagawa Yoshitomo, and changes his name in Matsudaira Motoyasu. Ieyasu will then have his first steps as a tactician in a campaign against the ODA he leads on the orders of Yoshimoto. He will win a few victories of relative importance, but which will allow him to start making a name for himself.

In 1560, Imagawa Yoshimoto assembled an army of around 25,000 men and walked to Kyoto, the capital, in order to obtain from the emperor the title of Shogun ^{[ 2 ]} . Ieyasu, at the head of his army, is one of the troops but is detached from the gross of the army to attack a strong border. He will then stay there to defend him, which will allow him to avoid the surprise battle of Okehazama which will be a real disaster for the Imagawa and regain his freedom ^{[ 3 ]} . Indeed, while Yoshimoto advances his army on the lands of Oda Nobunaga (who took over from his father at the head of the clan) the latter launches a surprise attack on Yoshimoto (despite a clear numerical inferiority and the opinion contrary to his generals) and won a flash victory (the battle lasted only a few minutes), killing Imagawa Yoshimoto in passing ^{[ 4 ]} .

Learning the defeat of Okehazama, Ieyasu retired, then contacts Nobunaga with a view to organizing an alliance. However, the negotiations are made in the utmost discretion, the woman and the second son of Ieyasu being at this time in Sunpu.

In 1561, Ieyasu seized the castle of Kaminogō, possession Imagawa, and captured there family members of a close to Imagawa Ujizane, successor to Yoshimoto. This capture allows him to recover his wife and son (in exchange for his prisoners), as well as to prove his good will to Nobunaga. Ieyasu therefore becomes a vassal of Nobunaga, and he will remain so until the latter’s death.

Ieyasu now having his hands free, he devoted himself to the reorganization of his clan and his domain: he rewards his vassals by granting them land to Mikawa. These men will have great importance in the many battles that Iyasu will deliver throughout her life, and among them are notably Honda Tadakatsu, Ishikawa Kazumasa, Kōriki Kiyonaga, Hattori Hanzō, Sakai Tadatsugu and Sakakibara Yasumasa. Then, in 1564, he was fighting the Mikawa Monto, an army of warriors who had refused to submit to his authority, during the Battle of Azukizaka. He defeats them and shaves their temples ^{[ 5 ]} .

In 1566, he asked the emperor for authorization to change his name in Tokugawa Ieyasu, which was granted to him ^{[ 6 ]} . At that time, he declared to descend from the Minamoto, which would bring him in the event of a position of force a great credibility to be named Shogun. However, it seems unlikely that this claim will be based on anything proven. But, for the moment, Ieyasu remains vassal of Nobunaga, and he participates in all important battles alongside the ODA: thus, he was present when taking Kyoto in 1568.

In 1570, he enlarged his territory by taking the rest of the Imagawa land at the end of a pact with Shingen Takeda, a pact which cost him dear since Shingen took Sunpu before him, thus preventing him from annexing the Suruga. In response, Ieyasu welcomes Imagawa Ujizane, promising to give him back his land. Relations between Tokugawa and Takeda then become tense, a situation that gets worse when Ieyasu combines with Uesugi Kenshin, proven enemy of Takeda Shingen. Then Tokugawa moves his headquarters to get closer to the territory of Shingen and the war becomes inevitable.

At the end of 1571, Shingen who combined with the Go-Hōjō clan invaded the Totomi, which belongs to the Tokugawa. Ieyasu rallies his men and the two armies met at the beginning of 1572, at the Battle of Mikata-Ga-Hara, where the Tokugawa were stinging a bit of defeat: Ieyasu can do little to death. Following this, Ieyasu will spend a year refusing the fight against Shingen, living in a permanent siege state. Fortunately for him, Takeda Shingen died in the spring of 1573. Man was a brilliant general, often considered the best of the period and Takeda Katsuyori, his son and successor, is unable to capitalize on the overwhelming victories of his father.

In 1575, Katsuyori attacked Nagashino Castle in Mikawa and Ieyasu called Nobunaga to the rescue. He comes personally to the head of a large army. The Tokugawa-Oda army, with 38,000 soldiers, faced the Takeda army at the famous battle of Nagashino. Katsuyori is defeated, but he manages to flee and withdraw on his Kai lands. He will never leave Ieyasu quiet and sporadic clashes between the two clans still took place, but Katsuyori never managed to regain control of the province of Suruga.

In 1579, the wife of Ieyasu and her eldest son Nobuyasu were accused of conspiracy with the Takeda. Ieyasu ordered his son to make septuku ^{[ 7 ]} , his wife was executed.

In the spring of 1582, Nobunaga was assassinated by one of his vassals, Akechi Mitsuhide. Ieyasu is, at that time, in the vicinity of Osaka and, not being able to face Mitsuhide, he is forced to go home avoiding the troops of his enemy who seeks him to execute him . Back on his lands, Ieyasu plans to go avenge Nobunaga but he was preceded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi who crushed Mitsuhide at the Battle of Yamazaki. Ieyasu then took advantage of the death of Nobunaga to invade the provinces of Kai and Shinano, the two old provinces of the Takeda clan, which Nobunaga had crushed just before dying. But the Hōjō react and send a large army to prevent it. The two clans will not compete, and will take an agreement stipulating thatieyasu keeps control of Kai and Shinano, while the Hojo will take control of the province of Kazusa.

In 1583, a war broke out between Hideyoshi and Shibata Katsuie, another former vassal of Nobunaga. Ieyasu will remain neutral in this confrontation, preferring to avoid conflict with Hideyoshi, who will destroy Katsuie at the Battle of Shizugatake and thus become the most powerful Daimyo in Japan.

In 1584, Ieyasu supported Oda Nobukatsu against Hideyoshi. Nobukatsu, son of Nobunaga, wanted to succeed his father and thus disputed the power of Hideyoshi. The fact that Iieyasu supports it was only a way of provoking the Toyotomi, to generate a confrontation before Hideyoshi’s power becomes too large for him to be defeated. Ieyasu therefore sends an army to the castle of Owari. Hideyoshi responds by driving an army in the province of the same name. The two armies meet for the first time at the battle of Komaki (in truth a simple skirmish) then at the battle of Nagakute, the only real confrontation of what is now called the Komaki campaign. A year later, the two daimyos decreed a truce under the impetus of Nobukatsu, then Ieyasu went in 1586 to Osaka to meet Hideyoshi and make him allegiance. Peace is concluded, but it goes without saying that Hideyoshi no longer has confidence in Ieyasu. In fact, he will no longer participate in any military campaign (except for the Odawara campaign). During the two invasion of Korea (1592 and 1597), Ieyasu will be present in the headquarters, but will not send any man on site ^{[ 8 ]} .

In 1590, after having submitted Shikoku and the Shimazu from Kyushu, Hideyoshi attacks Hōjō Ujimasa, great daimyo in the Kantō region. Ieyasu sends 30,000 men on the spot, who join the Toyotomi army which then reached a total of 160,000 men. After taking several border castles, the army puts the siege in front of the Odawara castle where the Hōjō locked themselves up. The seat will last six months under which it will be taken. Hōjō chiefs committed suicide and Hideyoshi offers Ieyasu to take control of their provinces in exchange for the five he owns (Mikawa, Totomi, Suruga, Shinano, Kai). Ieyasu accepts and moves to his new lands. After their disappearance, Date Masamune, Daimyo of the northern province of Sendai, becomes the last independent Daimyo of Japan; His lands are far from those of Hideyoshi. He will submit some time later.

Ieyasu therefore inherits Hōjō provinces, richer than those he had before. He established his capital in Edo (current Tokyo) but in doing so he moves away from Hideyoshi and therefore from the country’s political center, which was probably the objective of Toyotomi. This distance also allows him to avoid participating in the invasion of Korea between 1592 and 1597 and thus to save his army which contributed to giving him an advantage in Sekigahara a few years later against the other generals of Hideyoshi whose The troop reservoir had been started during this campaign which was expensive in men.

After the death of Hideyoshi Toyotomi in 1598, the fight begins almost immediately between the 5 regents he had set up to manage the minority of his son Hideyori Toyotomi (born in 1593). Ieyasu Tokugawa, an eminent member of this advice and former important lieutenant of Nobunaga Oda, quickly takes the advantage. In 1600 he obtained the support of half of the daimyos by crushing a coalition of rivals in western Japan during the Battle of Sekigahara and became, in fact , the country’s leader. He made his granddaughter marry in Hideyori, Senhime, aged seven, then will get rid of it definitively in 1615, claiming a dispute about an inscription in a temple ^{[ 9 ]} .

In 1603, after being assigned the title of Shogun (chief of the armies), he made the village of Edo ( Edo ^? , “Porte de la Rivière” ) , where he had established his neighborhoods, the new capital. Edo will become Tokyo (“East capital”) from the Meiji era. Ieyasu was therefore the first shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty, which reigned over Japan until 1868 (Meiji Revolution).

In 1614, the Toyotomi clan reconstructed the castle of Osaka and a nearby sanctuary, including a bell, on which there is an inscription saying: “May the state be peaceful and prosperous; To the east he greets the pale moon, and in the West farewell to the setting sun. Ieyasu, installed in Edo, who is located in the East, interprets this as an insult, and the tension begins to climb between the two clans. This is getting worse when Hideyori begins to bring together a force made up of rōnins and tokugawa enemies in Osaka. Ieyasu then decides to prevent this growing force, and sends 194,000 men there. Thus begins the Osaka campaign, a series of battles fought by the Shogunat Tokugawa in order to destroy the Toyotomi clan. It was in 1615 that the siege led with the defeat of Hideyori, which was made septuku in its castle, at the end of the Battle of Tennōji, ending the Toyotomi clan and paving the way with two hundred and fifty years of Shogunat Tokugawa .

When he died, Ieyasu was buried in Sunpu (now Shizuoka) in the sanctuary called Kunōzan Tōshō-Gū, then his body was moved to Nikkō. The tokugawa mausoleum Ieyasu is in the Tōshō-Gū sanctuary, located in Nikkō (日光) (more or less 140 km north of Tokyo).

Lord Ieyasu had many advantages that allowed him to access power. He was not much appreciated by the people but was feared and respected for their charisma and cunning. He was calculating and subtle and often changed his alliances when it suited him. He first combined with Shingen Takeda then changed his mind and was responsible for the death of Shingen and his son. He combined with the Hōjō clan then joined the army of Hideyoshi which destroyed him and it was Ieyasu who recovered their territory. This kind of behavior was common in a period of violence, sudden death and betrayal.

He was capable of great loyalty. Once combined with Oda Nobunaga, he never stood against him and the two leaders took advantage of their long alliance. He was known for his dedication to his friends and vassals which he rewarded. However, he was resentful. It is said that, having become powerful, he executed a man who had insulted him during his youth ^{[ ten ]} .

Ieyasu protects many alumni forces from the Takeda of the anger of Oda Nobunaga, who was known to feed a bitter grudge against the Takeda. He succeeded in successfully transforming a large number of vassals of the Takeda clans, Hōjō and Imagawa-which he himself beaten or helped to defeat-in partisans.

Ieyasu is known to be ruthless. He also personally orders his men to execute the young son still a child of Hideyori, Kunimatsu. He orders the execution of each soldier found who participated in the defense of the castle of Osaka. Tens of thousands of samurai were said to have been killed, their heads stuck on wooden boards that line the Kyoto road to Fushimi. His lack of compassion is not particularly rare for his time and can be attributed to his education in the midst of wars, assassinations and continuous violence. A quote from Ieyasu as represented in the film Rikyu sums up his vision of life roughly: “Life means that I can live to see tomorrow. »»

Ieyasu’s favorite hobby is hawking. He considers it an excellent training for a warrior. “When you go to peddle in the country, you learn to understand the military spirit and also the difficult life of the lower classes. You exercise your muscles and train your members. You have a quantity of walking and racing and becoming indifferent to heat and cold and thus you are unlikely to suffer from a disease ^{[ 11 ]} . Ieyasu has often swam; Even at the end of his life, he would have swam in the moats of the Château d’Edo.

Later, he turned to scholarship and religion and became a patron of famous scholars like Hayashi Razan.

Two of his famous quotes:

“Life is similar to a long journey with a heavy burden that your steps are slow and regular so as not to trip. Persuade yourself that imperfection and disadvantages are the natural lot of mortals, and there will be no room for dissatisfaction or for despair. When the ambitious desires arise in your heart, remember the extreme days that you have gone through. Tolerance is the root of tranquility and security forever. Look at the anger of the enemy. If you only know what is to conquer and do not know what it is to be defeated, woe to you, it will be bad for you. Find to complain about in your home rather than in others ^{[ twelfth ]} . »

“In life, the strongest men are those who understand the meaning of the word patience. Patience means retaining your inclinations. There are seven emotions: joy, anger, anxiety, love, pain, fear and hatred, and if a man does not give in to the latter, he can be called patient. I am not as strong as I could be, but I have long known and practiced patience. And if my descendants want to be as I am, they must study patience ^{[ 13 ]} . »

He claims to have fought as a warrior or general in ninety fights.

According to some sources, Ieyasu was known to have the habit of biting his nails when he was nervous, especially before and during the battle.

He became interested in various skills Kenjutsu And was a defendant of the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū school and also employed some of them like his personal sword instructors.

Under its grip, the Japanese company folds up: the borders are closed and only the vessels of the Dutch company of East India are allowed to trade in the counter of the island of Dejima, at the entrance to the port of Nagasaki. An austere neo-confucian ideology is advocated, based on a strict separation of social classes, and the prohibition of any ostentatious sign of wealth. The shogunal function even becomes hereditary in order to discourage the possible claims of the great feudal lords (the daimyos ).

He created a new administrative capital in Edo (current Tôkyô), seat of the Shogunat. It was only a fishing village, but in 1635 it imposed on all the Daimyos to reside there every other year, while their family must reside there permanently ^{[ 14 ]} .

In his personal relationships, Ieyasu manifests the same temperament as the one he has with foreigners. He had nineteen women and concubines, who gave him eleven sons and five daughters. He took great care of his children and grandchildren, and made three of them, Yorinobu, Yoshinao, and Yorifusa the respective daimyos of the provinces of Kii, Owari and Mito. He could also be extremely hard: he ordered the execution of his first wife and his eldest son.

• SENAHIME, FILLE DE SEKIGUCHI CHIKANAGA someet d’Une sœUR de imagawa yoshitomo; Surnomse TSUKIYAMA DONO, mariée en January 1557 , put to death in 1579, mother of:
  • Matsudaira nobuyasu ( April 13, 1559 – October 5, 1579 );
  • Kamehime ( June 27, 1560 – first ^is July 1625 ), married in 1577 to Okudaira Nobumasa (1555-1615), including a son Okudaira Sadayoshi.
• ASAHI-HIME (1543- February 18, 1590 ), sister of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, daughter of Chikuami and Omandokoro (mother of Hideyoshi), married (a) either in Saji Hyuga no Kami, or to Soeda Jimbei, married (b) May 1586 to Ieyasu.
• Iworgori No kata, ele langa nagata, m The other.
  • TOKU HIME (1565- 3 mars 1615 ) Also called Tomiko, married (a) in 1582 to Hojo Ujinao (1562- December 19, 1591 ) son of Hojo Ujimasa and the eldest daughter of Takeda Shingen; Married (B) in 1594 in Ikeda Terumasa ( January 31, 1565 – 16 mars 1613 ), including an Ikeda Nobuteru son.
• O-man no kata, daughter of a Shinto priest from the Nagai clan, mother of
• ACHA NO TSUBONE ( 16 mars 1555 – February 16, 1637 ), Nonne Unko-in, Veuve de Kamio; Concubine de IEYASU EN 1578.
• O-Ai no kata (1552-1589), daughter of Totsuka gorodaiyu and adopted in the saigo clan, nicknamed saigo no tsubone, posthumous hodai-in, mother of:
• O-Take no Kata, daughter of Ishikawa Masanaga, mother of:
  • Furuhime (1580- September 27, 1617 ), married (a) to Gamō Hideyuki (1583- June 13, 1612 Fils de Gamo Ujisato et de ODA FUYUHIME, DAIMYO D’AIZU; Mariée (b) En 1615 à asano Nagaakira (1586-1632) AMA;
  • TOKUGAWA YOSHINAO ( October 18, 1583 – October 15, 1603 ).
• Chaa no tsubone, from the Kawamura family, died the July 30, 1621 , mother of:
• O-Mutsu NO KATA, Du Clan Mitsui, Morte En Couches En 1592.
• O-KAME NO KATA (1573- October 9, 1642 ), nicknamed Shimizu Dono, mother of:
• Mamiya Dono, m The Christian
  • Matsuhime (1595-1598), posthumous name Eisho-in.
• O-Man no Katai (1580- October 13, 1653 ), daughter of Masaki Kansa, adoptive daughter of Kageyama Ujihiro, mother of:
• O-katsu no tsubone ( December 7, 1578 – September 17, 1642 ), also called O-Kaji no tsubone, daughter of Ota Yasusuke, nun under the name of Eisho-in, mother of
  • Ichihime ( January 28, 1607 – 7 mars 1610 ), posthumous name seiun-in.
• O-natsu NO KATA, Fille de Hasegawa Sanjuro.
• O-ROKU NO KATA, Fille de KURODA NAGAHARU.
• O-Bai NO KATA, Fille d’aoki kazunori.
• O-Lume no Kata, remarried to Honda Masazumi (1566- April 5, 1637 ), Fils de Honda Masanobu.

• Since the XVII ^{It is} century The play of puppets Yoshitsune Shin Takadachi showed it in the guise of the Shogun Minamoto No Yoritomo, leader of the XII ^{It is} century, to avoid censorship
• Recurring appearances in the series SENGOKU BASARA
• Kagemusha, the shadow of the warrior (1980), d’Akira kurosawa.
• Ieyasu Tokugawa is the Japanese leader in several games in the series Sid Meier’s Civilization (1, 2, 3 and 4).
• Character of the Samurai Warriors saga.
• He appears several times in the manga Samurai deeper kyo .
• He is represented by the character of Toranaga in Shogun by James Clavell.
• He is one of the two military leaders that can be followed in video games Pillow .
• It is controlled during the Japan campaign in Age of Empires 3 ( The Asian Dynasties ).
• Present and controllable character in video games Pillow .
• Shogun: the greatest samurai , fr. from the Serie Warlord , produced by the BBC, 2008.
• He is also present in the game Total War Shogun 2 .
• He plays a big role in the anime SENGOKU OTOME .
• In Capcom’s video game, Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams , Ieyasu Tokugawa is a main figure in the game scenario.
• It also appears in the Sengoku Basara game as well as in the manga of the same name.
• It also appears in the anime Nobunaga the Fool .
• He plays an important role in video games NIOH .
• He is an important secondary character in the manga Fast .

Bibliography [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

• (in) Charles Ralph Boxer, The Christian Century in Japan: 1549-1650 , University of California Press, 1993, 552 p. (ISBN  978-1857540352 ) .
• Shiba ryotaro, Tokugawa IEYASU, SHOGUN SUPRême , Éditions du Rocher, 2011, 380 p. (ISBN  978-2228069524 ) .
• (in) Conrad Totman, Tokugawa IEYASU, SHOGUN: A BIOGRAPHY , Heian, 1983, 205 p.

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