Tokugawa Ieyasu | |
---|---|
徳川家康 | |
Shogun | |
In office 1603–1605 |
|
Monarch | Go-Yōzei |
Preceded by | Sengoku period |
Succeeded by | Tokugawa Hidetada |
Personal details | |
Born |
Okazaki Castle, Mikawa |
January 31, 1543
Died | June 1, 1616 Sunpu, Japan |
(aged 73)
Spouse(s) |
Lady Tsukiyama Asahi no kata |
Children |
Legitimate:
Illegitimate:
Among others... |
Parents |
Matsudaira Hirotada Odai-no-kata |
Illegitimate:
Among others...
Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川 家康, January 31, 1543 – June 1, 1616) was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which effectively ruled Japan from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, and abdicated from office in 1605, but remained in power until his death in 1616. His given name is sometimes spelled Iyeyasu, according to the historical pronunciation of the kana character he. Ieyasu was posthumously enshrined at Nikkō Tōshō-gū with the name Tōshō Daigongen (東照大権現). He was one of the three unifiers of Japan, along with his former lord Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Tokugawa Ieyasu was born in Okazaki Castle in Mikawa on the 26th day of the twelfth month of the eleventh year of Tenbun, according to the Japanese calendar. Originally named Matsudaira Takechiyo (松平 竹千代), he was the son of Matsudaira Hirotada (松平 広忠), the daimyō of Mikawa of the Matsudaira clan, and Odai-no-kata (於大の方, Lady Odai), the daughter of a neighbouring samurai lord, Mizuno Tadamasa (水野 忠政). His mother and father were step-siblings. They were just 17 and 15 years old, respectively, when Ieyasu was born. Two years later, Odai-no-kata was sent back to her family and the couple never lived together again. As both husband and wife remarried and both went on to have further children, Ieyasu in the end had 11 half-brothers and sisters.