Nobunaga Oda: "If she does not sing, I will kill the nightingale!"
Hijoshi Toyotomi: "We must make him sing!"
Izyasu Tokugawa: "I will wait until he sings …"
(An old Japanese parable about how three great men stood under a tree on which a nightingale was sitting)
So we come, finally, to the story of a man unique, even by Japanese standards, fate. A person of not too significant family, who was held hostage from childhood, but by the will of fate and his talents became the ruler of Japan and was declared a deity after death. Moreover, he not only achieved the highest, after the emperor, power in the country, and the power is quite real, and not nominal, but also passed it on to his children, establishing the rule of the Tokugawa clan in Japan for … 265 years! That is how many, from 1603 to 1868, the shoguns of his kind ruled in the country, ensuring peace, preservation of culture, traditions and complete economic stagnation, which almost turned into a national catastrophe for her and a complete loss of independence!
This is how Ieyasu Tokugawa looks in the Japanese painting tradition.
But of course, he could not know where his descendants would lead his "now". He just wanted the best for them and for the country. Note that in the history of different countries of the world there were quite a few rulers, to whose name the word "Great" was then added. But what does it mean for a ruler to be great? Well, first of all, probably, the ruler should unite the country or the territories under his control into one economic and cultural whole, and, let us note, many have managed to do this. This is Cyrus the Great, and Alexander the Great, and Peter the First, and Catherine the Second, and Joseph Stalin - why not? It is unlikely that we will be mistaken if we add that such a ruler should have been happily at war and either expand the boundaries of his own state, or defend its territorial integrity in the fight against the enemy. And here we meet all the same names. But such an important condition for "greatness" as the continuity of one's course is an unattainable dream for most of the above-named historical characters. Well, they did not pay the necessary attention to this most important circumstance. Alexander died, and immediately his closest associates tore the empire apart, and his mother, wife and son were killed. Peter the First died, having inscribed: "Give everything …" and nothing more. Catherine was succeeded by Paul, who began to do everything in his own way and ended up with an ashtray in his temple. Well, no less great Stalin ended his life alone, surrounded by half-friends, half-enemies and left not only an heir (son Vasily does not count, of course, this is a son, not an heir!), But also a continuer of his cause. Why this happened is a topic for a separate article. The main thing is that it happened. Well, the empire he created, too, turned out to be short-lived, although it withstood the greatest of wars.
And so in the TV series "Nyotora, the mistress of the castle."
But Tokugawa Ieyasu did not receive the nickname "Great" during his lifetime. But on the other hand, after his death, he was awarded the name Tosho-Daigongen ("The Great Savior God Who Illuminated the East"), under which he was included in the list of the Kami spirit-deities. Of course, the characters we named like this, directly, are not entirely correct to compare. Many had different tasks, they lived in different eras with different levels of technology, but … nevertheless, the stability of the Tokugawa shogunate is still indicative: 265 years of rule by representatives of the same family! Moreover, he did not have a theory that would rally the masses, was not faithful to its ideas and to himself, the party, but there were only adherents bought for rice rations and an oath of loyalty, there were no trusted and controlled media outlets, many of which were not … And nevertheless, he succeeded in something that no one in Japan had ever done before! Yes, there were shoguns before Ieyasu Tokugawa, but their clans still did not rule for so long! Thus, the first Minamoto shogunate in Japan existed for 141 years. Also a considerable period, but still less than the second Ashikaga shogunate, whose reign lasted 235 years, but again it was shorter than the term of the last, third, with the capital in Edo. And this despite the fact that Ieyasu himself was a shogun for only some two years! In 1603 he received this title, and in 1605 he already passed it on to his son Hidetada. After giving the Japanese the peace and stability they longed for, Tokugawa died in 1616.
Mother Ieyasu Tokugawa.
Naturally, the life of such a person is of great interest and that is why we will tell you about him …
Born Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1543, he belonged to the Matsudaira samurai family - an ancient but seedy one. His father was Matsudaira Hirotada, who was the eighth head of the Matsudaira clan and daimyo of Mikawa Province. As a child, Ieyasu bore the name Takechiyo and very early experienced on himself what it means to be a member of a weak family. The fact is that the lands belonging to the Matsudaira clan were located so poorly that there were much more powerful neighbors to the east and west of them, constantly at war with each other. That is why almost the main occupation of the clan members was the dispute about whose ally it is best to become, that is, simply speaking, to whom and for what to sell with greater profit! Some of the clan's vassals "held the side" of their western neighbor Oda Nobuhide, while others advocated the subordination of the daimyo located in the east - Imagawa Yoshimoto. Grandfather Ieyasu Matsudaira Kiyoyasu (1511-1536) in one of the quarrels over the choice of the overlord was even stabbed to death by his own vassals, because he wanted to contact the Oda family, and those wanted to see the Imagawa family as overlord. Therefore, the father of the future unifier of Japan had to be very careful not to repeat his fate! By the way, Ieyasu's mother was from a clan that usually adhered to an orientation towards western neighbors, so when in 1545 most of the vassals of the Matsudaira clan began to insist on the support of Imagawa Yoshimoto, he had to expel her from his residence. The opinion of relatives and vassals turned out to be stronger than his power of the head of the clan!
Imagawa Yoshimoto. U-kiyo Utagawa Yoshiku.
When in 1548 the Oda army attacked the lands of the Matsudaira clan, he asked for help from the powerful daimyo Imagawa Yoshimoto. And he, of course, agreed to help his vassal on the condition that the young Ieyasu be handed over to him as a hostage. This automatically placed the Matsudaira clan in a subordinate position. But Ieyasu's father had no choice, and he agreed. But then a story began, worthy of the fighters of Golluvid, but, nevertheless, quite reliable. Oda Nobuhide learned about Hirotada's intention to give up his son Imagawa and thus buy his military support and … organized the kidnapping of six-year-old Ieyasu, using secret agents for this. He reasoned quite logically - there is no son, no hostage, and no hostage, then there is no union, because Imagawa will simply decide that Ieyasu is being hidden from him!
But it turned out that the duty of the head of the clan for Hirotada turned out to be higher than his father's love and he decided that he could sacrifice his son, but not a military alliance. And the plan of Nobuhide thus failed. In theory, he should have killed Ieyasu right there, but he decided that it was never too late to do this and until the time sent the boy to the Manshoji monastery in the city of Nagoya, where he kept him for three years. And it so happened that during this time the future shogun made friends with Oda Nobunaga, the son of his captor!
Image of Ieyasu Tokugawa helmet.
And in 1549, Matsudaira Hirotada, Ieyasu's father, was stabbed to death by his own guard, and thus the Matsudaira clan were left without a leader - a situation, again, very realistically shown in the TV series Nayotora, Mistress of the Castle. According to the concepts of that time, Imagawa Yoshimoto sent his man to their castle, which was to lead the clan on his behalf. But the duty of the samurai commanded to snatch Ieyasu from the hands of Oda and make him the new head of the family. And such an opportunity for Imagawa presented itself three years later, when Oda Nobuhide died of an ulcer, and now internal strife and a struggle for leadership began in his clan. Taking advantage of this, the Imagawa troops captured the castle, and in it the son of the late Nobuhide, Oda Nobuhiro, whom it was decided to exchange for the nine-year-old Ieyasu. The vassals of the Matsudaira family were very pleased with the return of the new lord, even a young one, but Imagawa Yoshimoto insidiously deceived their expectations and took Ieyasu to his capital, the city of Sunpu. That is, he again became a political hostage, only now with another person. And what to do if in Japan the nobility usually did not stand on ceremony with the small landed nobility (and, by the way, where did the nobles at least stand on ceremony with someone ?!) and, in order for his samurai to remain faithful to their daimyo, took hostages from their families. Usually the eldest sons - the heirs who lived after that at the court of the "senior master". So young Ieyasu thus became a hostage in the Imagawa clan. But he lived well there: food, training with one of the best strategists at that time, Ohara Yusai, clothing and premises befitting his position - he had all this. In 1556, Imagawa Yoshimoto became his adoptive father and even personally performed the coming-of-age ceremony for the young hostage. At the same time, Ieyasu received the name Matsudaira Jiro Motonobu. The next year, he actually forced him to marry his niece named Sena, that is, he made a hostage his relative, and gave him a new name Motoyasu. Then a year later, Imagawa entrusted Ieyasu with command of the troops that he successfully commanded in his first battle, capturing Terabe Castle on the western border for Imagawa. All this time, Ieyasu was smart enough to pretend to be such a simpleton (by the way, in the TV series "Nayotora, Mistress of the Castle" this is also shown very well!), Constantly playing Go (a popular game in Japan, like chess) with himself. That is, his personality did not arouse particular envy in anyone in the Imagawa clan.
The go table used by Ieyasu.
But he pretended to be stupid only until the Battle of Okehazama (1560), in which the head of the Imagawa clan Yoshimoto died. Knowing well that the son of Yoshimoto Ujizane is very far from his father in all respects, and his own troops are at his fingertips, Ieyasu decided to rebel against his overlord as soon as he learned of Yoshimoto's death in the Battle of Okehazama, and to make an alliance with his evil enemy (and friend!) - Ode Nobunaga!
In order to be free in all respects, he managed to get his wife and son out of the Sunpu, and then capture his ancestral castle Okazaki. Only after that Ieyasu in 1561 decided to openly oppose the Imagawa clan, after which he took one of their forts by storm. The next year, 1562, he finally made an alliance with Oda Nobunaga, according to which he promised to fight his enemies in the east. And a year later, as a sign of a complete break with the Imagawa clan, he again changed his name and began to be called Matsudaira Ieyasu.
After that, Ieyasu took up the affairs of government in his lands, but the Buddhist communities of fanatic monks of the Ikko-ikki sect, who did not recognize his power, began to interfere with this. They had to fight with them from 1564 to 1566, but, fortunately, for Ieyasu this war ended with his complete victory Ieyasu. He united all the lands of the Mikawa province under his rule, for which the imperial court awarded him the honorary title of "Mikawa no kami" (Protector of Mikawa). Only now he felt really strong and once again changed his surname to Tokugawa - the surname of the descendants of the ancient samurai family of Minamoto.
In 1568, Ieyasu decided to conclude an alliance with another neighbor, already in the north - the Takeda clan, but again against the Imagawa clan. In addition, he also participated in Oda Nobunaga's campaign in Kyoto, and assisted Ashikaga Yoshiaki, who was promoted to shogun.
Takeda Shingen at that time was a powerful ally with a strong army. Therefore, it is not surprising that under the joint blows of Shingen and Tokugawa, the Imagawa clan ceased to exist. Totomi Province (western part of modern Shizuoka Prefecture) now belonged to Ieyasu, and Shingen received Suruga Province (eastern part of modern Shizuoka Prefecture). However, further their interests diverged. Takeda wanted to capture Kyoto, and the Tokugawa clan prevented him from doing so. Therefore, Shingen decided to destroy him and in 1570 invaded the possession of Ieyasu, who at that time helped Oda Nabunage to fight the Sakura and Azai clans.
Battle of Mikatagahara. Triptych by Chikanobu Toyohara, 1885
Tekeda Ieyasu successfully parried the first blows. But in October 1572, Takeda Shingen personally led his troops into battle. Tokugawa had to ask for help from Oda Nobunaga, but he was completely absorbed in the war with the Azai, Asakura clans and Buddhist rebels, and Ieyasu could not help and he had to act independently. He lost the Battle of Ichigenzaka, which was the signal for his vassals to defect to Takeda Shingen's side. The situation was especially aggravated when the fortress of Futamata fell and Ieyasu's allies began to leave it one by one. Seeing the plight of his ally, Oda Nobunaga sent him three thousand warriors. But all the same, having 11 thousand soldiers, Ieyasu simply could not win another battle with the 25 thousand army of Takeda Shingen. Nevertheless, Ieyasu Tokugawa nevertheless decided to give the aggressor "the last battle" and on January 25, 1573, attacked him from the rear. But even this cunning maneuver did not bring him success. As a result, the Battle of Mikatagahara ended in a crushing defeat for Ieyasu's army. He barely managed to break out of the encirclement and return to his castle. In the film "Nyotora, Mistress of the Castle" it was shown that at the same time he also put it in his pants and, in principle, after the horror he experienced after this battle, this was quite possible!
The famous screen from the Ieyasu Tokugawa Museum depicting the Battle of Nagashino.
A fragment of a screen, which in the lower left corner depicts Ieyasu's faithful associate Honda Tadakatsu, who can be recognized by his helmet with deer antlers.
But as it is written in the chronicles of that era (and this was indeed so, who would doubt it!) “The kami did not leave the Tokugawa,” because when everything seemed to be lost to him, Takeda Shingen suddenly fell ill in February 1573 and died. At first, Tokuga was so confused that he did not believe this news and in May of the same year he tried to return back a number of fortresses and castles captured by Shingen in his lands. In response, complete silence, since Shingen's son Katsueri was very far from his father, which he later demonstrated at the Battle of Nagashino. And, of course, many of those local rulers who had sided with Takeda yesterday immediately ran to show their obedience to Ieyasu. So there could be no doubt - the great Takeda Shingen really died!
The Japanese are very careful about the memory of the historical events that took place on their land. For example, here is a photograph from the Museum of the Battle of Nagashino, which shows a model of the fortifications built there.
And these are real hedges installed at the battle site. Nothing special, but … visible and memorable!
Only in May 1574, Takeda Katsuyori decided to finally implement his late father's plan and capture the capital of Kyoto. With an army of 15 thousand, he invaded the Tokugawa lands and captured the high-mountainous Takatenjinjo castle. In theory, he had to develop his success after that, but … it was not so. For some reason, he spent a whole year there, and in the meantime, the combined armies of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu opposed him. On June 29, 1575, at the battle of Nagashino, they utterly defeated the army of the Takeda clan, shooting their cavalry with muskets. Many generals and many samurai and ashigaru were killed. Thus, Ieyasu again regained power over all (except for Takatenjinjo Castle) lost possessions, and the complete elimination of the Takeda clan was now just a matter of time.
