Tokugawa Iemitsu (1/2)The three Shoguns who established the Edo Shogunate

After the death of Oda Nobunaga, the Sengoku period ended and Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified the country, but when he died, Hideyori Toyotomi, who was his successor, was still a child, and the country was once again in turmoil. In 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu won the Battle of Sekigahara, and the Edo Shogunate was established. Tokugawa Iemitsu was the third Shogun to rule the country.

This time, we will introduce the life of Iemitsu, who, as the third Shogun, implemented various policies to solidify the foundation of the shogunate and then handed it over to his successors.

From birth to the selection of the successor

He was born on July 17, 1604 (Keicho 9) in the Nishinomaru of Edo Castle as the second son of Tokugawa Hidetada, the second Shogun of the Edo Shogunate. His mother was Tatsuko (the third daughter of Azai Nagamasa), the adopted daughter of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who may be better known as Oe no Kata.

His father, Hidetada, who was the heir to the Tokugawa throne, had an eldest son, Nagamaru, who was born in 1601. However, due to the lack of advanced hygiene standards and medical care at the time, Nagamaru had already died young when Iemitsu was born, so he was treated as the heir.

For this reason, he was given the childhood name "Takechiyo" just like his great grandfather, Ieyasu. Upon his birth, Fuku (wife of Inaba Masashige, a retainer of the Kobayakawa clan, later known as Kasuga no Tsubone), the daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide's retainer Saito Toshimitsu, became his wet nurse, and he was given pages by Inaba Masakatsu, Matsudaira Nobutsuna, Okabe Nagatsuna, Mizuno Mitsutsuna, and Nagai Naosada.

Then, in 1605, Ieyasu retired, handed over the position of shogun to Hidetada, and became the taikokusho.
As a child, Iemitsu was not only sickly, but also had a stutter and was not particularly good looking. As a result, when his younger brother Kunimatsu (later Tadanaga) was born in 1606, it is said that there was a fight between Takechiyo and Kunimatsu over the succession.

According to the records in "Takeno Shokudan," Hidetada and his mother, Oe no Kata, favored his younger brother, Tadanaga, and it is said that there was even a risk of Takechiyo being dethroned. Kasuga no Tsubone, sensing the risk of being dethroned, took action by appealing to the Shogun Ieyasu, who was residing in retirement in Sunpu, about the situation.

When his grandfather Ieyasu, who had heard the story from Kasuga no Tsubone and was concerned about a succession dispute, dropped in on Hidetada and his friends, he scolded Kunimatsu, who innocently tried to sit in the seat that Iemitsu should have sat in and tried to sit on Ieyasu's lap. It is said that he made the seniority order between Takechiyo (Iemitsu) and Kunimatsu (Tadanaga) clear in front of the public, made it clear that Takechiyo was the successor, and put a nail in the coffin of Oe no Kata and Hidetada.

It is said that after this incident, the successor was officially decided, but these stories are all just rumors that were established after Iemitsu's death.

However, as further examination of contemporary historical materials has progressed, it is now believed that Iemitsu was officially selected as the successor during the Genna era.

Adulthood and marriage

In May 1616, Sakai Tadatoshi, Naito Kiyoji, and Aoyama Tadatoshi were appointed as Iemitsu's elders to serve as guardians of Takechiyo, and in September, over 60 young boys were appointed as pages. In this way, Iemitsu's elders and vassals were formed.

In 1617, he moved to the Nishinomaru, and in 1618, he received an Imperial envoy from the Imperial Court, showing evidence of his attendance at official events. His coming-of-age ceremony, which had been postponed following the death of Ieyasu in 1616, took place in 1620, and he changed his name from his childhood name, Takechiyo, to Iemitsu. At the same time, he was appointed Junior Third Rank Provincial Minister by the Imperial Court.

The name "Iemitsu" was chosen by Konchiin Suden, who served closely under Ieyasu.
The Honko Kokushi Nikki, written by Suden, records that initially he considered "Ietada", but then decided to choose "Iemitsu" after considering that it was the same as the given name of the Minister of the Left, Fujiwara Ietada, a nobleman from the Heian period.

The "ie" character was clearly inherited from Ieyasu's "ie", and this became the common character used for the eldest son's given name in the Tokugawa Shogunate thereafter. In 1622, the first armor-wearing ceremony was held, with Kato Yoshiaki serving as the armor parent.

In 1623, after the death of Naito Kiyoji, Sakai Tadayo and Sakai Tadakatsu were appointed as elders. On March 5th of the same year, he was appointed Ukone-taisho (General of the Right Division of the Imperial Guard) by the Imperial Court as the heir to the shogun family. In June, he went to Kyoto with his father Hidetada, and on July 27th, he was proclaimed shogun at Fushimi Castle and became Minister of the Interior with the second rank.
At this time, he also met Emperor Gomizunoo and his younger sister, Kazuko, who had entered the Imperial Court.

Returning to Edo, Hidetada retired to the Nishinomaru of Edo Castle, while Iemitsu moved to the Honmaru. There were many candidates for the Shogun Iemitsu's marriage partner, and there were rumors that he would marry the daughter of Kuroda Nagamasa. In August 1623, Takatsukasa Takako from the Takatsukasa family, one of the five regent families, came to Edo, and in December of the same year, she officially married him and became his wife.

Duel with Hidetada and the death of his father

Even after his father Hidetada handed over the position of Shogun to Iemitsu, he continued to hold real political power, mainly military command, as the head of the shogunate, just like his grandfather Ieyasu. Therefore, the actual shogunate government was a dual government, with Iemitsu as the Honmaru Toshiyori and his father Hidetada as the Nishinomaru Toshiyori.

As soon as Iemitsu became shogun, he dismissed the governor, Aoyama Tadatoshi, from his position as senior councilor, and in 1625 he stripped him of his title (Tadatoshi's son, Aoyama Munetoshi, later became a hatamoto and then returned to the rank of daimyo).

In July 1626, he again went to Kyoto on the occasion of Emperor Gomizunoo's visit to Nijo Castle; however, in opposition to the Shogun Iemitsu, the Shogun Hidetada made a large-scale visit to Kyoto accompanied by many of the leading daimyo and hatamoto, including Date Masamune and Satake Yoshinobu.

Iemitsu was granted an audience with Emperor Gomizunoo at Nijo Castle, and was promoted to Minister of the Left and Commander of the Left Guard, while his father, Hidetada, was still Prime Minister.

When his father, Hidetada, died in January 1632, the dual political system was dissolved and Iemitsu essentially began to wield his power as shogun instead of as kubō.

While he began reorganizing his direct-controlled forces, centering on the Hatamoto, he also dispatched inspectors throughout the country to monitor the situation, including the movements of local daimyo. Iemitsu was the first to dispatch inspectors on a nationwide scale, and in May of the same year he summoned outside daimyo and ordered the removal of Kato Tadahiro, lord of the Higo Kumamoto domain, due to internal strife within the domain.

In 1633, during the Kuriyama Daizen Incident (Kuroda Disturbance) in the Fukuoka domain, he personally ruled in favor of the claims of the domain's lord, Kuroda Tadayuki, and in 1635, during the Yanagawa Incident in the Tsushima domain, he also ruled in favor of the claims of the domain's lord, Mune Yoshinari, showing his active involvement in the matter.
In the Bakufu reforms, he established the system of senior councilors, young councilors, magistrates, and Ōmetsuke, and established the shogunate system with the incumbent shogun as the highest authority. In September of the same year, he bestowed the title of Gon Chunagon to his maternal grandfather, Azai Nagamasa.

The revision of the Buke Shohatto in 1635 added a provision requiring daimyo to perform alternate attendance.
Thus, it can be said that the foundations of the shogunate were established over three generations: his grandfather Ieyasu, his father Hidetada, and Iemitsu.

Iemitsu's Foreign Trade Policy

Externally, they strengthened management and control of foreign trade in order to monopolize the profits of Nagasaki trade, avoid international conflicts, and eliminate Christians, a tradition continued by Ieyasu.