Tokugawa Ienari
| Tokugawa Ienari | |
|---|---|
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| 11th Edo Shogun | |
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In office 1787–1837 |
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| Preceded by | Tokugawa Ieharu |
| Succeeded by | Tokugawa Ieyoshi |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 18, 1773 |
| Died | March 22, 1841 (aged 67) |
Tokugawa Ienari; 徳川 家斉 (November 18, 1773 – March 22, 1841) was the eleventh and longest-serving shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan who held office from 1787 to 1837. He was a great-grandson of the eighth shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune through his son Munetada (1721–1764), head of the Hitotsubashi branch of the family, and his grandson Harusada (1751–1827).
Ienari died in 1841 and given the Buddhist name Bunkyouin and buried at Kan'ei-ji.
In 1778, the four-year-old Hitotsubashi Toyochiyo, a minor figure in the Tokugawa clan hierarchy, was betrothed to Shimazu no Shige-hime or Tadako-hime, the four-year-old daughter of Shimazu Shigehide, the tozama daimyō of Satsuma Domain on the island of Kyūshū. The significance of this alliance was dramatically enhanced when, in 1781, the young Toyochiyo was adopted by the childless shogun, Tokugawa Ieharu. This meant that when Toyochiyo became Shogun Ienari in 1786, Shigehide was set to become the father-in-law of the shogun. The marriage was completed in 1789, after which Tadako became formally known as Midaidokoro Sadako, or "first wife" Sadako. Protocol required that she be adopted into a court family, and the Konoe family agreed to take her in but this was a mere formality.
Ienari was known as a degenerate who kept a harem of 900 women and fathered over 75 children
Many of Ienari's children were adopted into various daimyō houses throughout Japan, and some played important roles in the history of the Bakumatsu and Boshin War. Some of the more famous among them included:
Ienari's time in office was marked by an era of pleasure, excess, and corruption, which ended in the disastrous Tenpō Famine of 1832–1837, in which thousands are known to have perished.
The years in which Ienari was shogun are more specifically identified by more than one era name or nengō.
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