Tokugawa Ieyasu

31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616

Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan from 1603 until 1868. After decades as a regional daimyo allied with Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he won supremacy at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. His victory ushered in more than 250 years of relative peace known as the Edo period.

Comparing
Compare

Lived at the same time

Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Life events

Born at Okazaki Castle in Mikawa Province
31 January 1543

Ieyasu was born Matsudaira Takechiyo, son of Matsudaira Hirotada, a minor daimyo of Mikawa Province.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Sent as a child hostage, spending his youth with the Oda and Imagawa clans
1547 – 1560

From 1547 Ieyasu lived as a political hostage, first seized by the Oda clan and then held by the Imagawa in Sunpu until 1560.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Personal ✓
Regained independence after the Battle of Okehazama
1560

When Oda Nobunaga killed Imagawa Yoshimoto at Okehazama in 1560, Ieyasu broke free of Imagawa control and reclaimed Okazaki Castle.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Formed an alliance with Oda Nobunaga
c. 1561

Around 1561-1562 Ieyasu concluded an alliance with Nobunaga that lasted until Nobunaga's death in 1582.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Transferred to the Kanto region and made Edo his base
1590

After the fall of the Hojo clan in 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi moved Ieyasu to the Kanto provinces, where he established his headquarters at the small castle town of Edo.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relocation ✓
Won the Battle of Sekigahara
21 October 1600

Ieyasu's Eastern Army defeated the Western coalition led by Ishida Mitsunari on 21 October 1600, giving him effective control of Japan.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Appointed shogun, founding the Tokugawa shogunate
24 March 1603

The emperor named Ieyasu sei-i taishogun on 24 March 1603, formally establishing the Edo bakufu.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Abdicated the shogunate to his son Tokugawa Hidetada
1605

Ieyasu resigned as shogun in 1605 but continued to rule from Sunpu as retired shogun (ogosho).

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Destroyed the Toyotomi clan at the Siege of Osaka
November 1614 – June 1615

In the campaigns of 1614-1615 Ieyasu besieged Osaka Castle and eliminated Toyotomi Hideyori, removing the last threat to Tokugawa rule.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Died at Sunpu Castle
1 June 1616

Ieyasu died in 1616 and was posthumously enshrined as the deity Tosho Daigongen at Nikko.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓