Tokugawa Ieyasu (redirected from Matsudaira Takechiyo)

Tokugawa Ieyasu

(born Jan. 31, 1543, Okazaki, Japan—died June 1, 1616, Sumpu) Founder of the Tokugawa shogunate (see Tokugawa period) and ruler of Japan (1603–16). Along with Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Ieyasu was one of the three unifiers of premodern Japan. He allied himself initially with Nobunaga; that alliance allowed Ieyasu to survive the vicissitudes of endemic warfare in Japan at that time and to slowly build up his territory. By the 1580s he had become an important daimyo in control of a fertile and populous han (domain). When Nobunaga died, Ieyasu offered a vow of fealty to Hideyoshi, who was extending his control over southwestern Japan; Ieyasu, meanwhile, enlarged his vassal force and increased his domain's productivity. In the 1590s he avoided participating in Hideyoshi's disastrous expeditions to Korea, instead consolidating his position at home. When Hideyoshi died, Ieyasu had the largest and most reliable army and the most productive and best-organized domain in Japan; he emerged as victor from the ensuing power struggle. He confiscated his enemies' lands and gave them new domains away from Japan's heartland, much of which became Tokugawa property. He received the title of shogun and two years later passed the title to his son, thereby establishing it as hereditary among the Tokugawa.

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Tokugawa Ieyasu 

Born Dec. 15,1542, in Aichi Prefecture; died 1616 in Kunazan, near Shizuoka. Japanese feudal lord; founder of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Tokugawa was a close associate of Oda Nobunaga and Toyo-tomi Hideyoshi, the military leaders who in the late 16th century established a centralized feudal state in Japan. After Toyotomi’s death in 1598, Tokugawa became the leader of a coalition of feudal lords. In 1600, in the battle of Sekigahara, he completely defeated his opponents, who had formed an alliance under Toyo-tomi Hideyori, the son of Hideyoshi. In 1603, after forcing the emperor to confer on him the title of shogun, Tokugawa concentrated all power in his own hands. Although in 1605 he declared that power had been transferred to his son, Hidetada, he in fact continued to rule the country. Tokugawa issued edicts confirming the enserfment of the peasants. He also promulgated codes of conduct for princes and noblemen, as well as for the emperor and members of his court, which placed them under the shogunate’s control.

REFERENCE

Sadler, A. L. The Maker of Modern Japan: The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu. London [1937].