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Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川 家康
January 30,
1543 -
June 1,
1616) was the founder of the
Tokugawa
shogunate of
Japan, and is commonly known as one of the "three great leaders" of
feudal Japan (the other two are
Oda Nobunaga and
Toyotomi Hideyoshi).
Tokugawa was originally
daimyo of the Mikawa (present-day Eastern part of Aichi perfecture)
but was displaced to Kanto during Toyotomi's rule. Tokugawa's influence
made him an important ally of Oda Nobunaga. After Oda died and Toyotomi
Hideyoshi became Japan's dominant ruler, Tokugawa was named as one of five
regents (tairo)
with the responsibility of looking after Toyotomi's son,
Toyotomi Hideyori.
When Hideyoshi died in
1598, Hideyori was only five years old. The new regent was placed in
the care of Toyotomi's closest ally,
Ishida Mitsunari, who attempted to hold the Toyotomi coalition
together. Tokugawa, however, saw a chance to usurp power from the Toyotomi
loyalists, and assembled an "eastern army" to take on Ishida.
The ensuing
Battle of Sekigahara (1600)
ended in a crushing defeat for Ishida's "western army." In
1603, Tokugawa became shogun of an almost entirely unified Japan, a
concept that had been abandoned by
Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He abdicated in
1605 and allowed his son,
Tokugawa Hidetada, to take over.
The Tokugawa shogunate he founded would endure until the mid-19th
century, and while it would be a time of strict seclusion from the outside
world, it would also be a period of peace and stability.
Tokugawa's rise is among the most famous stories in Japanese history,
and was adapted by
James Clavell for the novel
Shogun.
Tokugawa was enshrined in
Nikko after his death, and his mausoleum, Nikko Toshogu, is a
popular tourist destination today. Sargent (1894; The Forest Flora of
Japan) recorded that a Daimyo who was too poor to offer a stone
lantern at the funeral, requested instead to be allowed to plant an avenue
of
Sugi, 'that future visitors might be protected from the heat of the
sun'. The offer was accepted; the avenue, which still exists, is over 65km
(40 miles) long, and 'has not its equal in stately grandeur'.
External links
For more detailed bios follow the links:
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http://www.ox.compsoc.net/~gemini/simons/historyweb/tokugawa-ieyasu.html
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http://www.samurai-archives.com/ieyasu.html
Preceded by:
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Tokugawa shoguns |
Succeeded by:
Tokugawa Hidetada |
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