Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu was born in Okazaki Palace , Mikawa Province on 31

January 1534 and died in Shizuoka City on 1 June 1616 . He died at the age of 73
years. Tokugawa Ieyasu was born with the name Matsudaira Takechiyo and he is a
damyo and shogun in Japan. He has a wife named Lady Tsukiyama and has a several
children like Matsuidara Nobuyasu , Kame-Hime, Yuki-Hideyasu, Toku- Hime ,
Tokugawea Hidetada. He is the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate who ruled
Japan since the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration of 1868. His
government center is in Edo (now known as Tokyo).
The Tokugawa shogunate ruled for 264 years in Japan and it was during this
time that Japan was closed from the outside world. His tenure was from 1603 to
1605. After that he was succeeded by his son Tokugawa Hidetada. Matsudaira's
family split into two sides: the Imagawa clan and the Oda clan. As a result Ieyasu
spent his early life in danger because of the impact of the Oda-Imagawa war. This
battle in the family caused the father of Hirotada (Ieyasu's grandfather), Matsudaira
Kiyoyasu to be killed for being more in favor of the Imagawa clan, while most
families favored the Oda clan. In 1548, when the Oda clan invaded Mikawa, Hirotada
appealed to the Imagawa clan Imagawa Yoshimoto to help him fight with the Oda
clan. Yoshimoto agreed with the terms Hirotada had to send his son, the 5-year-old
Ieyasu to Sunpu as a hostage.
Hirotada agreed to the terms. Oda clan leader, Oda Nobuhide heard this, then
kidnapped Ieyasu on the way to Sunpu. After that Nobuhide threatened to kill Ieyasu
if Hirotada did not break with Imagawa. But Hirotada refuses and prefers to sacrifice
his son as proof of his allegiance to the Imagawa clan. But Nobuhide was
disappointed because his plan failed, though he did not kill Ieyasu but held him in
Manshoji Temple in Nagoya for 3 years. In 1549 when Ieyasu was 6 years old his
father Hirotada died. At the same time Nabuhide died of an outbreak of disease.
When the palace almost fell into the hands of the Imagawa clan, Imagawa Sessai
(Uncle Imagawa Yoshimoto) entered into an agreement with Oda Nobunaga. Sessai
offered to have Ieyasu handed over to the Imagawa clan.
Nobunaga agreed and handed Ieyasu who was then 9 years old to be handed
over as a hostage at Sunpu. There he lived quietly as a hostage until the age of 15
years. In 1556, when Ieyasu stepped into adulthood, he changed his name to
Matsudaira Jir Osaburo Motonobu. A year later he married his first wife and renamed
his name to Matsudaira Kurandonosuke Motoyasu. He was allowed to return to
Mikawa at his birth, Imagawa asked him to fight the Oda clan in a series of battles.
Ieyasu won his first battle during the war on Terabe. In 1560 Oda's power fell to Oda
Nabunaga, a genius leader. At the time of Okehazama's battle, Yoshimoto was killed
by a surprise attack by Nobunaga. At that time Ieyasu and his followers did not
participate in the battle he and his followers managed to capture the fortress and to
defend the fortress he had to stay there, with Yoshimoto's death, Ieyasu decides to
ally with the Oda clan. In 1561, Ieyasu openly broke with the Imagawa clan and
subsequently seized control of a Kaminojo fortress, Ieyasu subsequently exchanging
his wife and son with the wife and daughter of the ruler of Kaminojo castle. In 1567,
Ieyasu replaced his namanhya again into his new family (clan) the Tokugawa and the
name of the emperor's gift, which he now uses, Ieyasu.
Then he declared himself a descendant of the Minamoto clan, ie from Seiwa
Tenno, the 56th Japanese emperor. In 1568, Ieyasu remained an ally of Oda
Nobunaga, the proof he and his Mikawanya forces participated in Nobunaga's attempt
to master Kyoto. At the same time he also tried to expand his own territory. He and
Takeda Shingen (head of the Takeda clan) in Kei Province, formed an alliance with
the aim of mastering the whole imagawa. In 1570, Ieyasu's forces captured Totomi
province, and Shigen's forces captured Suruga province, where Sunpu is the capital of
the Imagawa region. Ieyasu then ended his relationship with Takeda. In 1571, Takeda
Shingen allied with the Hojo clan invaded Totomi province (now in the Western part
of the Prefecture