Tokugawa Ieyasu

Who is Tokugawa Ieyasu?

Tokugawa Ieyasu was a Japanese military leader and statesman who founded the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan for more than two and a half centuries. Born into the minor Matsudaira clan during the turbulent Sengoku (Warring States) period, he spent years as a hostage of rival domains before rising to power as an ally of the unifiers Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After Hideyoshi's death, Ieyasu prevailed at the decisive Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, cementing his dominance over Japan's warlords. In 1603 the emperor appointed him shogun, and he established his capital at Edo (modern Tokyo). Though he formally retired in 1605 in favor of his son, he retained real power until his death. His consolidation of authority ushered in the long Edo period of internal peace, political stability, and isolation from much of the outside world, shaping Japan for generations.

Sources: A. L. Sadler, The Maker of Modern Japan: The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu, 1937 · Conrad Totman, Tokugawa Ieyasu: Shogun, 1983 · Encyclopaedia Britannica, entry 'Tokugawa Ieyasu'