-Ieyasu Tokugawa-

(1543–1616). The warrior chieftain who, outwitting many of his major contemporaries and outliving and outprocreating the rest, survived Japan's late-16th-century wars of unification to set up the Tokugawa shogunate.

Background—Born Matsudaira Takechiyo in the small castle of Okazaki in Mikawa Province (now part of Aichi Prefecture), he was the first son of Matsudaira Hirotada (1526–49), a petty chieftain. His mother, known to posterity as Odai no Kata (1528–1602), was the daughter of a neighboring warrior leader, Mizuno Tadamasa of Kariya in Mikawa. Ieyasu spent his youth first as a captive of his father's enemies, the Oda family, and then as a hostage to his father's allies to the east, the Imagawa. During this time he took the personal names Motonobu and then Motoyasu.

Early Career—In 1561 Ieyasu, having recently gained his independence from the Imagawa and taken control of his father's domains, abandoned his alliance with the Imagawa, allying himself instead with Oda Nobunaga. This action secured his western flank, and by 1568 his eastward expansion had made him master of the provinces of Mikawa and Totomi (now part of Shizuoka Prefecture). He had also changed his personal name to Ieyasu and had been permitted by imperial order to substitute for Matsudaira the more ancient family name of Tokugawa.

In 1570 at Anegawa near Lake Biwa, the Oda and Tokugawa forces combined to destroy the power of two local warrior houses, the Asai and Asakura, in a decisive battle (see Anegawa, Battle of). From 1572 to 1582 Ieyasu gradually expanded his territorial grasp, fighting for much of the time against the Takeda family. In 1572 the redoubtable Takeda Shingen gave Ieyasu the worst defeat of his career in a battle at Mikatagahara. Shingen soon died, however, and was succeeded by his son Katsuyori (1546–82). Successive battles—at Nagashino in 1575 and Takatenjin in 1581—drove the Takeda back, leaving Ieyasu master of Mikawa, Totomi, and Suruga (now part of the Shizuoka Prefecture).

In 1579 Ieyasu was obliged to put his wife (who was from an Imagawa vassal family) to death and force his firstborn son to commit suicide to reassure Nobunaga of his own loyalty. (Both were suspected by Nobunaga of having colluded with the Takeda.) Ieyasu reacted to the turmoil after Nobunaga's assassination in 1582 by making himself master of the Takeda heartland—the provinces of Kai and Shinano (now Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures)—which gave him an important position among the contending factions in central Japan.

His relations with Nobunaga's successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, began inauspiciously. In 1583 Ieyasu resisted several overtures from Hideyoshi, and in 1584 Hideyoshi attacked a Tokugawa fortress on Mt. Komaki (see Komaki Nagakute Campaign). Both men then decided that a rough alliance was to be preferred to further fighting. Therefore, in 1584 Ieyasu sent a son to Hideyoshi for adoption, receiving in return two years later Hideyoshi's 43-year-old sister, specially divorced so that she might marry him. In 1590 the two men joined forces to attack the great Kanto chieftain, Hojo Ujimasa (1538–90), in his castle at Odawara.

Move to Edo—By overthrowing the Hojo at Odawara in 1590 (see Odawara Campaign), Hideyoshi won a degree of control in eastern Japan unrivaled since the Kamakura period (1185–1333). Ieyasu was required to surrender his five provinces, including Mikawa, his native province, and move to a new domain including the provinces of Musashi, Izu, Sagami, Kazusa, and Shimosa, together with parts of Hitachi, Awa, Kozuke, and Shimotsuke—effectively, the Kanto Plain and its surrounding hills. Although his unfamiliarity with the new domain was a strategic, administrative, and probably fiscal disadvantage, the domain was larger, more productive, and geographically more unified than his former holdings. As headquarters he chose Edo (now Tokyo), a little fishing town on the edge of what is now Tokyo Bay.

In 1592 Hideyoshi began his invasion of Korea, an enterprise that consumed the remainder of his life and the resources of those warrior-leaders forced to take part. Ieyasu, however, was able to preserve his resources by maintaining a comfortable distance from this campaign. Shortly before Hideyoshi died in 1598 he made his senior generals, Ieyasu among them, swear to serve his son, Toyotomi Hideyori, faithfully. Within two years Ieyasu had broken that promise, forming alliances with four powerful warrior families. In response Ishida Mitsunari, one of Hideyoshi's vassals, armed with promises of support from several families, declared war against him in 1600. On 21 October 1600 Ieyasu led an army of 104,000 men into battle at Sekigahara (see Sekigahara, Battle of) and won an easy victory. As a result Tokugawa Ieyasu came to assume a great many of Hideyoshi's powers, establishing his control over the city of Kyoto (and hence over the emperor) and claiming authority over all Japanese daimyo.

Shogun—After 1600 Ieyasu was the most powerful warrior leader in Japan. In 1603 he assumed the ancient title of seii tai shogun (“barbarian-subduing generalissimo”) with the assent of Emperor Go-Yozei (1571–1617). Thenceforth he and his descendants were, like their predecessors of the Minamoto and Ashikaga families, held to be entitled to speak for the emperor on national affairs. It was expected that the shogun, as commander in chief of the entire samurai class, would be obeyed by all military overlords and their vassals.

In 1605 Ieyasu, then 63, resigned from office in favor of his third son, Tokugawa Hidetada, and two years later retired to Sumpu (now the city of Shizuoka). Although retired, Ieyasu had by no means relinquished his authority, especially in foreign affairs.

Above all Ieyasu was concerned about Japan's internal strategic balance, as the Tokugawa were dependent upon other warriors who could withdraw their support at any time. Any discontent with the Tokugawa shogunate would inevitably gather around Hideyoshi's son, Toyotomi Hideyori. Thus, in the winter of 1614 and again in the following spring, Ieyasu launched two attacks on Osaka Castle, Hideyori's fortress, finally taking it and destroying its outer fortifications. Hideyori chose to commit suicide, while his seven-year-old son, Kunimatsu, was beheaded (see Osaka Castle, Sieges of).

After the fall of Osaka Castle and the destruction of the Toyotomi house, Ieyasu's major accomplishment was having his advisers draw up in 1613–14 the two basic documents of early Tokugawa legislation. The Buke Shohatto (Laws for Military Houses) and the Kinchu Narabi ni Kuge Shohatto (Laws Governing the Imperial Court and Nobility) were both issued in 1615. Ieyasu died on 1 June 1616. A year later his remains were removed to Nikko, where by imperial decree he was canonized under the title of Tosho Daigongen, a manifestation of the Buddha as healer. Luck was an important factor in Ieyasu's success. He outlived his great contemporaries, Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and was survived by five sons, four of whom were entrenched in powerful positions. Ultimately, the achievement of Tokugawa Ieyasu was that by the time of his death he had brought peace and an unprecedented degree of unity to Japan and had provided a succession stable enough to withstand his passing. Others of his contemporaries could perhaps have achieved as much, but none could have done more.