狩野探幽 · Public domain
Sengoku to Edo period · 1543–1616
Tokugawa Ieyasu
徳川家康 · Japan
Founder of the Edo shogunate
Born into a minor daimyō family, as a boy he was held hostage by Imagawa Yoshimoto. He allied in turn with Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the three are known together as the 'three great unifiers' of Japan. In 1603 he founded the Edo shogunate, and the Tokugawa ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
Where the story happened
Places connected with this person
History · Himeji Castle
The White Heron Castle, unscathed for 700 years
In 1333 Akamatsu Norimura built the first fort on Himeyama. After the Battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu gave Himeji Castle to his son-in-law Ikeda Terumasa, who completely rebuilt it between 1601 and 1609 into today's great castle. Because of its gleaming white walls and its look of a bird about to take flight, it is called 'White Heron Castle'. For nearly seven centuries it has escaped destruction, surviving the wartime air raids on Himeji and the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake, and in 1993 it became one of Japan's first World Heritage Sites.
History · Nagoya Castle
The castle Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered built
In 1609 Tokugawa Ieyasu, having won control of the country, decided to build a castle at Nagoya and ordered daimyō from across the land to help. Work began in 1610 and the keep was completed in 1612. In the 1945 air raids on Nagoya most of Nagoya Castle was destroyed; reconstruction and restoration have gone on since 1957.
History · Osaka Castle
Hideyoshi's golden keep and the Siege of Osaka
In 1583 Toyotomi Hideyoshi began building a castle on the site of the Ishiyama Hongan-ji, intending to surpass Oda Nobunaga's Azuchi Castle in every way: a five-storey keep with gold-leaf-clad walls. It was completed in 1597, and Hideyoshi died the following year. In the winter of 1614 Tokugawa Ieyasu besieged the Toyotomi forces in the castle; after a truce, Osaka Castle's outer moat was filled in, and the following summer the Toyotomi family was destroyed in the Summer Siege of Osaka.
History · East Gardens of the Imperial Palace (site of Edo Castle)
Ōta Dōkan's castle, Tokugawa Ieyasu's realm
In 1457 Ōta Dōkan, a retainer of the Uesugi family, the Kantō deputies, built a castle at Edo, digging moats and building walls; the following year he took Buddhist vows and the name 'Dōkan'. He is regarded as the founder of the castle town of Edo but was assassinated by his lord in 1486. More than a century later, in 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi took Odawara and granted the eight Kantō provinces to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who made this by-then-derelict castle his base. In 1603 he founded the Edo shogunate, and Edo became the political centre of Japan until, after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the castle became the Imperial Palace.
History · Nijō Castle
The shogunate began here, and ended here
In 1601 Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered the daimyō of western Japan to help build Nijō Castle as the shogunate's base in Kyoto; it was completed in 1626 under his grandson Iemitsu. More than two centuries later, in 1867, the fifteenth shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, announced the 'restoration of imperial rule' in the Ninomaru Palace, returning power to the imperial court and bringing the Edo shogunate to an end.
History · Hida-Takayama
From castle town to shogunate territory
After the Battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu granted Hida Province to Kanamori Nagachika, and Takayama developed as a castle town. In 1692 the Kanamori were transferred to Dewa, Hida came under direct shogunate rule, and Takayama Jinya served as the intendant's office until 1871. It is the only surviving building of its kind in Japan, still used by the courts until 1969.
History · Nikkō Tōshō-gū
Tokugawa Ieyasu, who rests here
Tōshō-gū was first built in 1617 under the second shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada, and expanded to its present scale under the third shogun, Iemitsu. Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Edo shogunate, is enshrined here and his remains are buried here too: through the cedar forest and up several hundred stone steps lies his tomb.
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Related destinations
Himeji Castle
'White Heron Castle', spreading its wings: Japan's first castle to become a World Cultural Heritage Site
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Nagoya Castle
The 'pinnacle of early-modern castles', ordered built by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1610: golden shachihoko gleam against the sky, and the painted panel…
Osaka Castle
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's 'castle of the realm': Sengoku drama beneath roofs with golden shachi
East Gardens of the Imperial Palace (site of Edo Castle)
Edo Castle, built by Ōta Dōkan in 1457, later became the residence of the Tokugawa shoguns; today the Honmaru area is open free as a garden.
Nijō Castle
The Tokugawa shogunate's base in Kyoto: the Edo shogunate began here, and ended here.
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Hida-Takayama
The machiya streets of 'Little Kyoto' and the only surviving Edo-period intendant's office, hidden among the mountains of Hida.
Nikkō Tōshō-gū
Where Tokugawa Ieyasu rests: the dazzling Yōmeimon gate, the Sleeping Cat and the Three Wise Monkeys, hidden in a forest of towering cedars.