The life of Tokugawa Leyasu
Tokugawa Leyasu was born on the 31st day of January. He was the founder of Tokugawa Shogunate. This made him became the first shogun in Japan. Tokugawa Shogunate ruled from the battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until Meiji restoration in 1868. He was born in Okazaki castle in Mikawa. Tokugawa leyasu’s original name is Matsudaira Takechiyo. He is a son of Matsudaira Hirotada, which is the daimyo of Mikawa. His mother and father were just 17 and 15 years old when Ieyasu was born. When his mother and father separated and remarried again, he had 11 half brothers and sisters. His father died when he was only 7 years old from some natural causes.
Leyasu had unified the pre modern Japan along with Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi. He affiliated especially with Nobunaga which slowly build up his territory and last long with the alteration of deadly battles in Japan. In control of an abundant domain or what they call “Han”, he had been a daimyo in 1580s.
At a young age, he had become a hostage of Imagawa, where he fought against Oda Nobunaga. His first battle was in the siege of Terabe. Leyasu had an important role when Imagawa Yoshimoto invaded Nobunaga’s territories. He made use of concentrated arquebus fire to capture the fortress of Marune.
When Imagawa died in 1560 at the battle of Okehazama by Nobunaga’s surprise assault, Ieyasu bound himself to Oda Nobunaga. With his loyalty to Nobunaga, they fought together at Azukozaka against the Ikkoikki sectarians at 1546, and in the relief of Nagashino castle in 1575. When Nobunaga died, Ieyasu fought against Yoyotomi Hideyoshi. However, in some skillful political ways, Ieyasu avoids the fate of other battles.
At the age of 16, Ieyasu married his first wife and changed his name with Matsudaira Kurandonosuke Motoyasu. In 1579, his wife and eldest son, Tokugawa Nobuyasu, were alleged of planning together with takeda katsuyori to kill Nobunaga. As a consequence, his wife was executed by cutting her head off, and hideyasu was commanded to have seppuku or also known as hara-kiri which means “cutting the belly”. Tokugawa Hidetada, Ieyasu’s third and favorite son became the heir, since his second son was adopted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi which is a supreme samurai.
Leyasu still have the power as a reclusive shogun and still an effective ruler even though Hidetada abandoned him. He started to supervise the making of Edo castle when he had retired to Sumpu. Although his son was the authorized shogun, Leyasu together with his 50,000 men went to Kyoto to see the coronation of emperor Go-Mizunoo in 1611. While he was in Kyoto, he commanded to reconstruct the imperial court ad buildings. He also forced the other remaining western daimyo to note a contract of devotion to him. In 1613, a document that had the court daimyo with firm administration was also composed by Ieyasu. In 1614, Christianity was banned in Japan which he also signed in. For this reason, many of the Christian Japanese stayed to Spanish Philippines.
Leyasu felt ill and died in his bed at the age of 73 in 1616. He was buried in Nikko Toshogu. He had a lot of children and made a lot of branches to continue the Tokugawa dynasty.
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