Yodo-dono
Yodo-dono or Yodogimi was a prominently placed figure in late-Sengoku period. She was a concubine and second wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the most powerful man in Japan, she became the mother of his son and successor, Hideyori. She was known as Lady Chacha. After the death of Hideyoshi, she took the tonsure, becoming a Buddhist nun and taking the name Daikōin; the great wealth and changing fortunes of her husband and son affected Yodo-dono's life as well. Surviving record books from luxury goods merchants provide insight into patterns of patronage and taste amongst the privileged class of women like Yodo-dono and her sisters. Father: Azai Nagamasa Mother: Oichi Adopted mother: Nene Husband: Toyotomi Hideyoshi Sons: Toyotomi Tsurumatsu Toyotomi Hideyori Adopted Daughter: Toyotomi Sadako, daughter of Oeyo married Kujō Yukiie Yodo-dono called Chacha in her youth, was the eldest of three daughters of the Sengoku period daimyō Azai Nagamasa, her mother, Oichi was the younger sister of Oda Nobunaga. It was speculated that Chacha wasn’t Nagamasa’s Daughter but Oda Nobunaga’s daughter since Oichi married Nagamasa in September 1567 and Yodo was born in December 1567.
After Nagamasa's death, Toyotomi Hideyoshi became the adoptive protector of Chacha. Her status changed once when she became his concubine, once again when she became the mother of his heir. Yodo-dono's middle sister, was the wife of Kyōgoku Takatsugu and the mother of Kyōgoku Tadataka. Yodo-dono's youngest sister, Oeyo known as Ogō, was the principal wife of Shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada and the mother of his successor Tokugawa Iemitsu. In 1570, Chacha's father, broke his alliance with Oda Nobunaga and there was a three-year period of fighting until 1573 when Nobunaga's army surrounded Nagamasa at Odani Castle. Nobunaga, requested the safe return of his sister, Oichi. Chacha, along with her two sisters, left the castle with her. Odani castle fell, amongst those who died were Nagamasa and Manpukumaru, Chacha's only brother. Nobunaga's death in 1582 caused open hostilities between Shibata Katsuie and Hashiba Hideyoshi over the issue of succession. Katsuie's forces were defeated at the Battle of Shizugatake, he was forced retreat to Kitanosho castle.
With Hideyoshi's army laying siege to his home, Katsuie set the castle ablaze. However, before Oichi died, she passed Chacha and Ohatsu to the care and protection of Hideyoshi. Yodo-dono soon moved to Yodo Castle. Hideyoshi's wife, was said to have been unable to conceive, she had two sons with Hideyoshi, who died young, Hideyori, born in 1593, who became Hideyoshi's designated successor. Hideyoshi was the enemy of her parents, first her father her step-father and mother. In 1594, the family moved to Fushimi Castle, but tragedy befell when Hideyoshi died in 1598 and the Toyotomi clan lost much of its influence and importance. Yodo-dono moved to Osaka Castle with her son Hideyori and plotted the restoration of the Toyotomi clan, she became the true head of Osaka Castle. Tokugawa Ieyasu, who seized control from Hideyori after the death of Hideyoshi, now viewed Hideyori as an obstacle to his unification of Japan. In 1614, Ieyasu laid siege to Osaka Castle. Yodo-dono defended the castle alongside her son, a truce was signed.
However, in 1615, Ieyasu once again attacked Osaka Castle. Subsequently, Yodo-dono and her son Hideyori committed suicide. A fictional character based on Yodo-dono appears in James Clavell's Shōgun; this contrived protagonist is Lady Ochiba, who dislikes Toranaga because he suspected her son was not fathered by the Taikō. However, she admires and trusts the Taikō's widow, who urges both her and Toranaga to marry so that Japan would remain united, when the heir, Yaemon comes of age, he can safely take control. In James Clavell's novels it is revealed that, just as in real history, Toranaga besieged Ochiba and Yaemon in their castle, prompting them to commit suicide. In the 2009 film Goemon, Cha-Cha is portrayed by Ryōko Hirosue, is depicted as being in love with Ishikawa Goemon, she is forced to marry Hideyoshi, though Goemon attempts to save Cha-Cha to no avail, dying in the attempt. In the 2011 Taiga drama, Gō: Hime-tachi no Sengoku, Cha-cha was portrayed by Japanese actress Rie Miyazawa. In the drama series Nobunaga no Chef - Episode 5, Chacha makes her appearance as a child by her parents' side.
A great part of this episode revolves around the fact that she would not eat meat. Out of her mother's concern, the main character of this series is asked to make a dish that will make Chacha like meat, she eternized in the book"The Yodo Castle" In Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Gaim & Wizard: The Fateful Sengoku Movie Battle, Cha-Cha appears in Gaim's portion of the film, in the World of the Sengoku Period. Among video games, she appears in Capcom's most recent addition of the Onimusha series, Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, as Toyotomi Hideyoshi's concubine and sister to playable character Ohatsu, who affectionately calls Yodo by her childhood name, "Cha-Cha", she appears as a playable character in Samurai Warriors: Sanada Maru. She appears under the name Chacha, a Berserker-class Servant in Fate/Grand Order. Yodo-dono appears as a
Satsuma Domain
Satsuma Domain Kagoshima Domain, was a Japanese domain of the Edo period. It is associated with the provinces of Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga in modern-day Kagoshima Prefecture and Miyazaki Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. In the han system, Satsuma was a political and economic abstraction based on periodic cadastral surveys and projected agricultural yields. In other words, the domain was defined in terms of kokudaka, not land area; this was different from the feudalism of the West. The domain was ruled from Kagoshima Castle, the core of what became the city of Kagoshima, its kokudaka was assessed at the second highest kokudaka after that of Kaga Domain. The Shimazu family controlled Satsuma province for four centuries prior to the beginning of the Edo period. Despite being chastised by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in his 1587 Kyūshū Campaign, forced back to Satsuma, they remained one of the most powerful clans in the archipelago. During the decisive battle of Sekigahara in 1600, the Shimazu fought on the losing side.
Satsuma was one of the most powerful feudal domains in Tokugawa Japan. It was controlled throughout the Edo period by the tozama daimyō of the Shimazu clan. Since the mid-15th century, Satsuma fought with the Ryukyu Kingdom for control of the Northern Ryukyu Islands, which lie southwest of Japan. In 1609, Shimazu Iehisa requested permission from the shogunate to invade Ryukyu. After a three-month war which met stiff resistance, Satsuma captured the Ryukyuan capital of Shuri and King Shō Nei. In the ensuing peace treaty, Satsuma annexed the Amami and Tokara Islands, demanded tribute, forced the King and his descendants to pledge loyalty to Satsuma's daimyō. For the remainder of the Edo period, Satsuma influenced their politics and dominated their trading policies to take advantage of Ryukyu's tributary status with China; as strict maritime prohibitions were imposed upon much of Japan beginning in the 1630s, Satsuma's ability to enjoy a trade in Chinese goods, information, via Ryukyu, provided it a distinct and important, if not unique, role in the overall economy and politics of the Tokugawa state.
The degree of economic benefits enjoyed by Satsuma, the degree of their influence in Ryukyu, are subjects debated by scholars, but the political prestige and influence gained through this relationship is not questioned. The Shimazu continually made efforts to emphasize their unique position as the only feudal domain to claim an entire foreign kingdom as its vassal, engineered repeated increases to their own official Court rank, in the name of maintaining their power and prestige in the eyes of Ryukyu. In 1871, Emperor Meiji abolished the Han system, the following year informed King Shō Tai that he was designated "Domain Head of Ryukyu Domain", transferring Satsuma's authority over the country to Tokyo. Though not the wealthiest han in terms of kokudaka, Satsuma remained among the wealthiest and most powerful domains throughout the Edo period; this derived not only from their connection to Ryukyu, but from the size and productive wealth of Satsuma province itself, from their extreme distance from Edo, thus from the shōgun's armies.
The Shimazu exercised their influence to exact from the shogunate a number of special exceptions. Satsuma was granted an exception to the shogunate's limit of one castle per domain, a policy, meant to restrict the military strength of the domains, they received special exceptions from the shogunate in regard to the policy of sankin-kōtai, another policy meant to restrict the wealth and power of the daimyō. Under this policy, every feudal lord was mandated to travel to Edo at least once a year, to spend some portion of the year there, away from his domain and his power base; the Shimazu were granted permission to make this journey only once every two years. These exceptions thus allowed Satsuma to gain more power and wealth relative to the majority of other domains. Though arguably opposed to the shogunate, Satsuma was one of the strictest domains in enforcing particular policies. Christian missionaries were seen as a serious threat to the power of the daimyō, the peace and order of the domain.
The ban on smuggling unsurprisingly, was not so enforced, as the domain gained from trade performed along its shores, some ways away from Nagasaki, where the shogunate monopolized commerce. In the 1830s, Satsuma used its illegal Okinawa trade to rebuild its finances under Zusho Hirosato; the Satsuma daimyō of the 1850s, Shimazu Nariakira, was interested in Western thought and technology, sought to open the country. At the time, contacts with Westerners increased particularly for Satsuma, as Western ships landed in the Ryukyus and sought not only trade, but formal diplomatic relations. To increase his influence in the shogunate, Nariakira engineered a marriage between Shōgun Tokugawa Iesada and his adopted daughter, Atsu-hime. In 1854, the first year of Iesada's reign, Commodore Perry landed in Japan and forced an end to the isolation policy of the shogunate. However, the treaties signed between Japan and the western powers the Harris Treaty of 1858, put Japan at a serious disadvantage. In the same year, both Iesada and Nariakira died.
Nariakira named Shimazu Tadayoshi, as his successor. As Tadayoshi was still a child, his father, Shimazu Hisamitsu
Akashi Takenori
Akashi Takenori was a Japanese samurai of the Azuchi-Momoyama through early Edo periods. Known as Teruzumi, Zentō, or Naritoyo. Retainer of Ukita Naoie, the major daimyō of Bizen Province. Known by his court title, Kamon-no-Kami. Takenori served as a strategist under Naoie's son Ukita Hideie. At the Battle of Sekigahara, he fought bravely against Fukushima Masanori. After the Ukita clan had been destroyed in the Battle of Sekigahara, Akashi vanished. At the Siege of Osaka, Akashi entered Osaka castle and he fought against Tokugawa Ieyasu to the last minute. After the castle's fall, he escaped again, he never committed suicide because of his Christian beliefs. Despite being hunted by the forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu, he was not caught.
Osaka Castle
Osaka Castle is a Japanese castle in Chūō-ku, Japan. The castle is one of Japan's most famous landmarks and it played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century of the Azuchi-Momoyama period; the main tower of Osaka Castle is situated on a plot of land one square kilometer. It is built on two raised platforms of landfill supported by sheer walls of cut rock, using a technique called Burdock piling, each overlooking a moat; the central castle building is five stories on the outside and eight stories on the inside, built atop a tall stone foundation to protect its occupants from attackers. The castle grounds, which cover 61,000 square meters, contain thirteen structures that have been designated as important cultural assets by the Japanese government, including: Ote-mon Gate Sakura-mon Gate Ichiban-yagura Turret Inui-yagura Turret Rokuban-yagura Turret Sengan Turret Tamon Turret Kinmeisui Well Kinzo Storehouse Enshogura Gunpowder Magazine Three sections of castle wall all located around Otemon Gate In 1583 Toyotomi Hideyoshi commenced construction on the site of the Ikkō-ikki temple of Ishiyama Hongan-ji.
The basic plan was modeled after the headquarters of Oda Nobunaga. Hideyoshi wanted to build a castle that mirrored Nobunaga's, but surpassed it in every way: the plan featured a five-story main tower, with three extra stories underground, gold leaf on the sides of the tower to impress visitors. In 1585 the Inner donjon was completed. Hideyoshi continued to extend and expand the castle, making it more and more formidable to attackers. In 1597 construction was completed and Hideyoshi died the year after. Osaka Castle passed to Toyotomi Hideyori. In 1600 Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated his opponents at the Battle of Sekigahara, started his own bakufu in Edo. In 1614 Tokugawa attacked Hideyoshi in the winter. Although the Toyotomi forces were outnumbered two to one, they managed to fight off Tokugawa's 200,000-man army and protect the castle's outer walls. Ieyasu had the castle's outer moat negating one of the castle's main outer defenses. During the summer of 1615, Hideyori began to restore the outer moat.
Ieyasu, in outrage, sent his armies to Osaka Castle again, routed the Toyotomi men inside the outer walls on June 4. Osaka Castle fell to the Tokugawa clan, the Toyotomi clan perished, the castle buildings burned to the ground. In 1620, the new heir to the shogunate, Tokugawa Hidetada, began to reconstruct and re-arm Osaka Castle, he built a new elevated main tower, five stories on the outside and eight stories on the inside, assigned the task of constructing new walls to individual samurai clans. The walls built in the 1620s still stand today, are made out of interlocked granite boulders without mortar. Many of the stones were brought from rock quarries near the Seto Inland Sea, bear inscribed crests of the various families who contributed them. Construction of the 5 story tenshu started in 1628 and was completed 2 years about the same time the rest of the reconstruction, followed the general layout of the original Toyotomi structure. In 1660, lightning ignited the gunpowder warehouse and the resulting explosion set the castle on fire.
In 1665, lightning burnt down the tenshu. In 1843, after decades of neglect, the castle got much-needed repairs when the bakufu collected money from the people of the region to rebuild several of the turrets. In 1868, Osaka Castle was surrendered to anti-bakufu imperial loyalists. Much of the castle was burned in the civil conflicts surrounding the Meiji Restoration. Under the Meiji government, Osaka Castle became part of the Osaka Army Arsenal manufacturing guns and explosives for Japan's expanding Western-style military. In 1931, the ferroconcrete tenshu was built. During World War II, the arsenal became one of the largest military armories, employing 60,000 workers. Bombing raids targeting the arsenal damaged the reconstructed main castle tower and, on August 14, 1945, destroyed 90% of the arsenal and killed 382 people working there. In 1995, Osaka's government approved yet another restoration project, with the intent of restoring the main tower to its Edo-era splendor. In 1997, restoration was completed.
The castle is a concrete reproduction of the original and the interior is intended as a modern, functioning museum. The castle is open to the public and is accessible from Osakajōkōen Station on the JR West Osaka Loop Line, it is a popular spot during festival seasons, during the cherry blossom bloom, when the sprawling castle grounds are covered with food vendors and taiko drummers. The large indoor arena, Osaka-jō Hall is located within the grounds of the castle park; the castle was featured in The Amazing Race 20. The castle appears in the 1955 Toho tokusatsu film Godzilla Raids Again, in which it is destroyed after Godzilla pins Anguirus against the castle, causing it to collapse. In 1975, British novelist James Clavell used the castle and its environs as a major plot location for his most famous work of historical fiction, ÑÑShōgun |Shōgun]], it was used as the training grounds for a Japanese Ninja force to help James Bond in You Only Live Twice. Himeji Castle Jurakudai Fushimi Castle List of Special Places of Scenic Beauty, Special Historic Sites and Special Natural Monuments Tourism in Japan Benesch, Oleg.
"Castles and the Militarisation of Urban Society in Imperial Japan," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 28, pp. 107-134. Mitchelhill, Jennifer. Castles of the Samurai:Power & Beauty. USA: Kodansha. ISBN 978-1568365121. Schmorleitz, Morton
James Murdoch (Scottish journalist)
James Murdoch was a Scottish scholar and journalist, who worked as a teacher in the Empire of Japan and Australia. From 1903–1917, he wrote the three-volume A History of Japan, the first comprehensive history of Japan in the English language; the third volume was published posthumously in 1926. Murdoch was born near Aberdeen, in Scotland, he exhibited signs of intellectual brilliance as a child, although his family was of moderate means, he won a scholarship to Aberdeen University where he completed a bachelor's and master's degree. He subsequently studied at Worcester College, Oxford University, the University of Göttingen, the University of Paris. Murdoch studied Sanskrit under Theodor Benfey while at the University of Göttingen. Regarded as a genius in foreign languages, at the age of 24, he resigned from his post as a professor and decided to emigrate to Australia. Murdoch taught in Queensland Australia from July 1881 – 1889 as headmaster of the new Maryborough Grammar School, he became unpopular with the trustees and he was dismissed in March 1885.
He worked for the next two years as assistant master at Brisbane Grammar School. In 1886, he sat for the Bar examinations, but failed in two of the eight papers because he had mistakenly attempted to answer every question, he left the school at his own wish and became a journalist at the radical nationalist journal, the Boomerang. In a series of articles he predicted that within a generation the Australian colonies would form an independent republic, which would turn socialist through a violent revolution unless the harsh living conditions of the working classes were alleviated. Murdoch came to Japan as a foreign advisor, from September 1889 – 1893 as a professor of European history at the First Higher School, an elite institution for young men entering the Tokyo Imperial University, his most famous student during his first period in Japan was Natsume Sōseki. In addition to teaching, he vigorously pursued literary activities. In June 1890 he published a long piece of Don Juan's Grandson in Japan.
In November he launched the Japan Echo, which lasted for six issues. In 1892 he published From a novel, Ayame-san, his stories were romances in which the heroes tended to be academic and sporting paragons with socialist political leanings, whereas the women were both mercenary and cruel, or paragons of erudition and good breeding. He wrote several texts for pictorial guidebooks aimed at historically-minded tourists, edited the memoirs of Hikozo Hamada, the castaway who became the first Japanese to acquire American citizenship. In September 1893 Murdoch left Japan to join a'New Australia' communist experimental commune in Paraguay. By the time of his arrival, about one-third of the colonists had seceded, far from the socialist paradise he had imagined, he found only poverty and disease, he remained only a few days and, leaving his 12-year-old son in South America, proceeded on to London in ill health. He spent the next five months recuperating at the British Museum translating the letters of sixteenth-century European religieux in Japan.
From 1894 to 1897 Murdoch taught English at the Fourth Higher School at Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture. On 23 November 1899, while teaching economic history at the Higher Commercial College in Tokyo, he married Takeko Okada. In 1901 Murdoch moved to the Seventh Higher School at Kagoshima, Kyūshū, he had never recovered from the illness he had contracted in South America and he hoped to benefit from the milder Kyūshū winters. A History of Japan During the Century of Early Foreign Intercourse appeared in 1903; the European language sources in Latin, Spanish and Dutch were all translated by himself. Lafcadio Hearn praised the book in the "Bibliographical Notes" section of his book Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation". In 1908, Murdoch's teaching contract was not renewed. Murdoch decided to remain at Kagoshima, he contributed to the Kobe Chronicle newspaper and, to supplement this income, planted a citron orchard. Although he was never to achieve fluency in speech, he had now become so proficient in classical written Japanese that he no longer had to rely on assistants.
A History of Japan From the Origins to the Arrival of the Portuguese in 1542 A. D. appeared in 1910. In 1915, following the completion of the manuscript of the third volume, The Tokugawa Epoch 1652–1868, poverty forced Murdoch back into teaching, this time at the junior high-school level. In February 1917, Murdoch was able to return to Australia to teach Japanese at the Royal Military College, at the University of Sydney, concurrent appointments instituted on the initiative of the Australian Defense Department; the following year, in response to an effort made by Waseda University to bring him back to Japan, the University of Sydney raised his status to that of a tenured professor. In return for £600 a year from the Defense Department, the university permitted Murdoch to visit Japan annually to obtain first-hand information on shifts in Japanese public opinion and foreign policy; the first such visit resulted in a memorandum critical of Australia's intransigence on the racial equality issue raised by Japan at the Paris Peace Conference.
Two years Murdoch was called to Melbourne to give the Prime Minister of Australia his views on the renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Murdoch died of cancer at
Seppuku
Seppuku, sometimes referred to as harakiri, is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was reserved for samurai, but was practiced by other Japanese people on to restore honor for themselves or for their families. A samurai practice, seppuku was used either voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies, as a form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed serious offenses, or performed because they had brought shame to themselves; the ceremonial disembowelment, part of a more elaborate ritual and performed in front of spectators, consists of plunging a short blade, traditionally a tantō, into the belly and drawing the blade from left to right, slicing the belly open. If the cut is performed enough it can sever the descending aorta, causing a rapid death by blood loss; the term "seppuku" is derived from the two Sino-Japanese roots setsu 切 and puku 腹. It is known as harakiri. Harakiri is in reverse order with an okurigana. In Japanese, the more formal seppuku, a Chinese on'yomi reading, is used in writing, while harakiri, a native kun'yomi reading, is used in speech.
Ross notes, It is pointed out that hara-kiri is a vulgarism, but this is a misunderstanding. Hara-kiri is Kun-yomi of the characters. So hara-kiri is a spoken term, but only to commoners and seppuku a written term, but spoken amongst higher classes for the same act; the practice of performing seppuku at the death of one's master, known as oibara or tsuifuku, follows a similar ritual. The word jigai means "suicide" in Japanese; the modern word for suicide is jisatsu. In some popular western texts, such as martial arts magazines, the term is associated with suicide of samurai wives; the term was introduced into English by Lafcadio Hearn in his Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation, an understanding which has since been translated into Japanese. Joshua S. Mostow notes that Hearn misunderstood the term jigai to be the female equivalent of seppuku; the first recorded act of seppuku was performed by Minamoto no Yorimasa during the Battle of Uji in the year 1180. Seppuku was used by warriors to avoid falling into enemy hands, to attenuate shame and avoid possible torture.
Samurai could be ordered by their daimyō to carry out seppuku. Disgraced warriors were sometimes allowed to carry out seppuku rather than be executed in the normal manner; the most common form of seppuku for men was composed of the cutting of the abdomen, when the samurai was finished, he stretched out his neck for an assistant to sever his spinal cord. It was the assistant's job to decapitate the samurai in one swing, otherwise it would bring great shame to the assistant and his family; those who did not belong to the samurai caste were never expected to carry out seppuku. Samurai could carry out the act only with permission. Sometimes a daimyō was called upon to perform seppuku as the basis of a peace agreement; this weakened the defeated clan so that resistance ceased. Toyotomi Hideyoshi used an enemy's suicide in this way on several occasions, the most dramatic of which ended a dynasty of daimyōs; when the Hōjō were defeated at Odawara in 1590, Hideyoshi insisted on the suicide of the retired daimyō Hōjō Ujimasa, the exile of his son Ujinao.
The practice was not standardised until the 17th century. In the 12th and 13th centuries, such as with the seppuku of Minamoto no Yorimasa, the practice of a kaishakunin had not yet emerged, thus the rite was considered far more painful. Seppuku's defining characteristic was plunging either the tachi, wakizashi or tantō into the gut and slicing the abdomen horizontally. In the absence of a kaishakunin, the samurai would remove the blade, stab himself in the throat, or fall with the blade positioned against his heart. During the Edo Period, carrying out seppuku came to involve a detailed ritual; this was performed in front of spectators if it was a planned seppuku, not one performed on a battlefield. A samurai was bathed, dressed in white robes, served his favorite foods for a last meal; when he had finished, the knife and cloth were given to the warrior. Dressed ceremonially, with his sword placed in front of him and sometimes seated on special clothes, the warrior would prepare for death by writing a death poem.
He would be dressed in the shini-shōzoku, a white kimono worn for death. With his selected kaishakunin standing by, he would open his kimono, take up his tantō or wakizashi —which the samurai held by the blade with a portion of cloth wrapped around so that it would not cut his hand and cause him to lose his grip—and plunge it into his abdomen, making a left-to-right cut. Prior to this, he would consume an important ceremonial drink of sake, he would give his attendant a cup meant for sake. The kaishakunin would perform kaishaku, a cut in which the warrio
Tokugawa Iemitsu
Tokugawa Iemitsu was the third shōgun of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada, the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Iemitsu ruled from 1623 to 1651, during this period he crucified Christians, expelled all Europeans from Japan and closed the borders of the country, a foreign politics policy that continued for over 200 years after its institution, it is debatable whether Iemitsu can be considered a kinslayer for making his younger brother Tadanaga commit suicide by seppuku. Iemitsu had well-known homosexual preferences, it is speculated he was the last direct male descendant of Tokugawa Ieyasu, thereby ending the patrilineality of the shogunate by the third generation. Tokugawa Iemitsu was born on 12 August 1604, he was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada and grandson of the last great unifier of Japan, the first Tokugawa shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was the first member of the Tokugawa family born after Tokugawa Ieyasu became shōgun.. Not much is known of Iemitsu's early life.
He had two sisters and Masako, a brother, who would become a rival, Tadanaga. Tadanaga was his parents' favorite. However, Ieyasu made. An obsolete spelling of his given name is Iyemitsu. Father: Tokugawa Hidetada Mother: Oeyo Sibling from Mother: Toyotomi Sadako, adopted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Yodo-dono married Kujō Yukiie, daughter of Toyotomi Hidekatsu Wife: Takatsukasa Takako Honriin Concubines: Okoto no Kata Hoshin'in Ofuri no Kata Jishōin Oraku no Kata Hōjuin Onatsu no Kata Junshōin Oman no Kata Eikoin Otama no Kata Keishoin Orisa no Kata Jokoin Ohara no Kata Osuzu no Kata Omasa no Kata Children: Stilborn Son by Ofuri Chiyohime by Ofuri Tokugawa Ietsuna by Oraku Tokugawa Kamematsu by Omasa Tokugawa Tsunashige by Onatsu Tokugawa Tsunayoshi by Otama Tokugawa Tsurumatsu by Orisa Adopted Daughters: Kametsuruhime, daughter of Tamahime with Maeda Toshitsune and married Mōri Tadahiro, son of Mōri Tadamasa of Tsuyama Domain Tsuruhime, daughter of Matsudaira Tadanao and married Kujō Michifusa had 3 daughters: the first married Kujō Kaneharu the second and the third married Asano Tsunaakira Manhime, daughter of Tamahime with Maeda Toshitsune and married Asano Mitsuakira had 3 sons: Asano Tsunaakira, Asano Naganao, Asano Nagateru Oohime, daughter of Tokugawa Yorifusa And married Maeda Mitsutaka had 1 son: Maeda Tsunanori Tsuhime daughter of Ikeda Mitsumasa and married Ichijō Norisuke had 1 son: Ichijō Kaneteru Iemitsu came of age in 1617 and dropped his childhood name in favor of Tokugawa Iemitsu.
He was installed as the heir to the Tokugawa shogunate. The only person to contest this position was his younger brother Tokugawa Tadanaga. A fierce rivalry began to develop between the brothers. From an early age Iemitsu practiced the shūdō tradition. However, in 1620, he had a falling out with his homosexual lover, Sakabe Gozaemon, a childhood friend and retainer, aged twenty-one, murdered him as they shared a bathtub, he married Takatsukasa Takako, daughter of Takatsukasa Nobufusa at 12th December 1623. His relationship with Takako was good but Takako had three miscarriages. In 1623, when Iemitsu was nineteen, Hidetada abdicated the post of shōgun in his favor. Hidetada continued to rule as Ōgosho, but Iemitsu assumed a role as formal head of the bakufu bureaucracy. In 1626, shōgun Iemitsu and retired shōgun Hidetada visited Emperor Go-Mizunoo, Empress Masako, Imperial Princess Meishō in Kyoto. Shōgun Iemitsu made lavish grants of gold and money to the court nobles and the court itself, yet relations with Go-Mizunoo deteriorated after the Purple Robe Incident, during which the Emperor was accused of having bestowed honorific purple garments to more than ten priests despite an edict which banned them for two years.
The shogunate intervened. When the wet nurse of Iemitsu and Masako broke a taboo by visiting the imperial court as a commoner, Go-Mizunoo abdicated and Meisho became empress; the shōgun was now the uncle of the sitting monarch. In Kan'ei 9, on the 24th day of the 2nd month, Ōgosho Hidetada died, Iemitsu could assume real power. Worried that his brother Tokugawa Tadanaga might assassinate him, however, he ruled until that brother's death by seppuku in 1633. Hidetada left his advisors, all veteran daimyōs. In 1633, after his brother's death, Iemitsu dismissed these men. In place of his father's advisors, Iemitsu appointed his childhood friends. With their help Iemitsu created a centralized administration; this made him unpopular with many daimyōs, but Iemitsu removed his opponents. His sankin-kōtai system forced daimyōs to reside in Edo in alternating sequence, spending a certain amount of time in Edo, a certain amount of time in their home provinces, it is said that one of the key goals of this policy was to prevent the daimyōs from amassing too much wealth or power by separating them from their home provinces, by forcing them to devote a sizable sum to funding the immense travel expenses associated with the journey to and from Edo.
The system involved the daimyōs' wives and heirs remaining in Edo
Toyotomi clan
