When American gun boats threatened Japan in 1868 they were
the precursors of change that would bring down a dynasty in power for over two hundred
and fifty years. The Tokugawa shogunate was established in 1603 by Tokugawa
Ieyasu, head of the clan.
Youth
Ieyasu was born of a minor branch of the Hachimantaro
Yoshiie clan, of the Seiwa Genji line on 31st January 1543. In
Europe Henry VIII was in the last years of his reign, when he married Catherine
Parr in the summer of that year. Copernicus published his revolutionary theory
that the earth rotated around the sun and Martin Luther his incendiary ‘On the
Jews and their Lies’. Also in this year the Japanese received their first
samples of firearms from ship-wrecked Portuguese.
Another branch of the family had produced the Ashikaga
Shoguns[i] and Ieyasu’s birthright gave
him the right, as a member of the Minamoto family, to hold the position of
Shogun. The son of Hirotada, Ieyasu was named Takechiyo[ii]. Hirotada was daimyo of
Mikawa[iii] and at the time of
Ieyasu’s birth was 17 years old.
1543 was a year of conflict in Japan as Oda Nobuhide[iv] repulsed an attack by
Imagawa Yoshimoto of Suruga province. Hirotada’s father-in-law Mizuno Tadamasa[v] died in July and his son
switched sides, in the war raging between Oda and Yoshimito. Bound as he was to
Yoshimoto, Hirotada returned his wife[vi] to her family, Ieyasu
remaining with his father.
Hostage
Reconstructed keep of Okazaki Castle
Further manoeuvres in the struggle resulted in Hirotada’s
overlord demanding Ieyasu, now six, as a hostage, in return for support against
Oda, who was now marching on Okazaki[vii], where an Oda supporter
had been assassinated by one of Hirotada’s men.
En route Ieyasu was kidnapped and delivered into the hands
of Oda, who wrote to Hirotada suggesting that he hand over Okazaki if he did
not want his son to be put to death. Hirotada refused, saying that his overlord
would have greater faith in him if he allowed his son to be killed rather than
dishonour himself. Ieyasu stayed three years as Oda’s hostage.
Hirotada died of TB at the age of twenty four and Oda
Nobuhide died at roughly the same time, aged forty two. Oda was replaced for a
short time by his son Nobuhiro, who was driven out by his younger more capable
brother Oda Nobunaga. Nobunaga killed his younger brother. Nobuhiro was
besieged in his castle at Anjo[viii] by Hirotada’s former
allies and it was not until he agreed[ix] to hand over Ieyasu that
the siege was lifted.
Imagawa Yoshimoto
Ieyasu was placed under the control of Imagawa in Sumpu. The
Tokugawa clan was now to be ruled by Imagawa’s officials. Ieyasu had two
guardians and seven young pages, all of whom became eminent officials and
leaders of the Tokugawa House. Ieyasu was not particularly studious and spent
much of his free time hawking, which was to remain one of his major passions,
annoying a neighbour.
‘He
flew his hawks over his land and trespassed on it, and trampled it down, so
that Mondo exclaimed “I have had about enough of the boy from Okazaki” and
treated him with discourtesy.’[x]
Adulthood
Ieyasu stayed at Sumpu until he was fifteen, when his coming
of age ceremonies were held under the auspices of Yoshimoto. Ieyasu was given
the adult name Matsudaira Jirosaburo Motonobu. As an adult, Ieyasu was renowned
for his acute awareness of money, in particular his own; an uncommon attribute
at the time.
Ieyasu’s dependents had not been treated well; the majority
of their income had been taken by Imagawa, who had set out to deliberately
weaken the Mikawa fief. Additionally he used the Mikawa soldiers at the
forefront of any fighting, to spare his own men. The maltreatment was
advantageous to Ieyasu as it obliterated the infighting in the Mikawa clan, who
united against Imagawa.
In the following year 1558 Ieyasu fought in his first
battle. Yoshimoto suggested that Ieyasu fight for Terabe, whose lord had just
transferred his allegiance to Nobunaga.
‘Western
Mikawa has always been your territory…..and now Suzuki Shigeteru, lord of the
castle of Terabe, has deserted us and gone over to Oda Nobunaga with it. How
awful!’[xi]
Oda Nobunaga
The castle was attacked and burnt. Oda Nobunaga sent a
relief force which was driven off by Ieyasu’s men. Yoshimoto rewarded Ieyasu
with a sword and a grant of Ieyasu’s own land. In 1559 Ieyasu became a father
for the first time, having married the daughter of Sekiguchi Gyobushoyu
Chikanaga[xii].
His son was named Matsudaira Nobuyasu.
Yoshimoto made his move the next year, marching circa
twenty-five thousand men against Nobunaga’s line of defensive forts. Ieyasu was
involved in the action storming and burning the fort of Marune. The attacks
brought Nobunaga and his army to the border. After the battle was over
Yoshimoto was dead and his forces scattered. Ieyasu, after confirmation of the
death withdrew with his forces to his fief of Mikawa, which Yoshimoto’s men
abandoned.
Entering into His Inheritance
Nobunaga did not move against Ieyasu. Ieyasu made some
tentative advances into Owari territory and halted before Oda Gemba in
Kutsukake[xiv].
But the following spring in 1561 Nobunaga made overtures through an
intermediary. Ieyasu’s family were held hostage in Suruga under the control of
Yoshimoto’s son Ujizane[xv], nevertheless Ieyasu
decided to ally with Nobunaga. He informed Ujizane that the alliance was
temporary and necessary to Imagawa interests as well as Mikawa. Ujizane put to
death a number of hostages of lesser families, who now transferred their
allegiance to Ieyasu.
Ieyasu’s alliance with Nobunaga lasted until the latter’s
death in 1583. It was around this time that Toyotomi Hideyoshi[xvi] appeared on the Japanese
stage, as a supporter of Nobunaga.
Monto Buddhism
In 16th century Japan one of the powers in the
land was the Monto sect of Buddhism that did not lay great demands on its
followers ethically or intellectually. Over the years the sect had been able to
take advantage of the Emperor and Shogun’s impotence and had strengthened
itself at the expense of the secular power, collecting monies to hire soldiers.
By the late 15th century the sect’s monks had taken power in the
province of Kaga; their power was felt throughout Osaka. The Monto Buddhists
also held sway at Nagashima[xvii] and Tomita[xviii].
Mikawa also housed three temples of the sect, all
acknowledging no power apart from the head of the sect. The temples refused to
allow Ieyasu’s men to enter the temples to requisition supplies. Ieyasu
determined to deal with the Buddhists, assisted by Ujizane’s inability to act
against him, while his attention was diverted elsewhere. The Mikawa border
castles were loyal to Ieyasu, giving him the time to crush this opposition
within his fief.
When the monks ill-treated the families of one of his
supporters Ieyasu decided to act. The sect’s army was heavily loaded with
farmers, who were armed with matchlocks, obtained from the Portuguese. The
military leaders for the most part sided with their lord. By 1564 the Monto
sect agreed to disperse their armies and proposed terms on condition that those
who had taken part in the revolt should not affected in terms of life and
property and that the temples should be as they were originally.
Ieyasu agreed to these conditions and the monks laid down
their arms. They were horrified when Ieyasu’s men pulled down the temples. Upon
complaining to Ieyasu the monks were told:
‘That
by “as they were originally were” he understood the bare site of the ground
before they were built on it.’[xix]
Bibliography
Sekigahara – Anthony Bryant, Osprey Publishing Ltd 1995
Samurai William – Giles Milton, Hodder & Stoughton 2002
The Maker of Modern Japan – AL Sadler, Charles E Tuttle
Company 1983
Tokugawa Ieyasu Shogun – Conrad Totman, Heian 1983
En.wikipedia.org
[i]
General. In the twelfth century the position of Shogun was made a perpetual
commission, as chief of military governors and tax administrators.
[ii]
A thousand ages like the bamboo; a temporary childhood name. Reference to
Ieyasu will be made by his adult name, in an attempt to reduce confusion (on my
part if no-one else’s).
[iii]
One of the provinces of the Tokaido, on the south-eastern edge of Honshu.
[iv]
Magistrate of Owari province and father of Oda Nobunaga
[v]
Lord of Kariya in Mikawa
[vi]
She remarried and had a further 7 children.
[vii]
In Aichi prefecture
[viii]
Ibid
[ix]
The besiegers threatened to force Nobuhiro to commit suicide.
[x]
The Maker of Modern Japan - Sadler
[xi]
Ibid
[xii]
Yoshimoto’s brother-in-law
[xiii]
Chibu prefecture
[xiv]
In Nagoya
[xv]
Devoted to Japanese verse and football
[xvi]
Succeeded Nobunaga and is regarded as Japan’s second great unifier
[xvii]
In Ise province
[xviii]
In Owari province
[xix]
The Maker of Modern Japan - Sadler
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