Tokugawa IetsunaThe fourth shogun who was not blessed with an heir

During the Edo period, the position of shogun was steadily passed down through the direct line from the first shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, to the second shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada, and the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, until Tokugawa Ietsuna became the fourth shogun.

Although Ietsuna further developed the shogunate that Iemitsu had established as a firm foundation and generally ruled well, he also had aspects of his private life that were not exactly happy, such as becoming shogun at a young age and not being blessed with an heir, forcing him to pass the position on to his youngest brother.

From birth to becoming a general

He was born on August 3, 1641 (Kan'ei 18) in the Honmaru of Edo Castle as the eldest son of the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu. His mother was Rakuko, the adopted daughter of Nanasawa Kiyomune. His childhood name was Takechiyo, a name that had been passed down for generations of the successors of the Tokugawa shoguns. His wet nurses were Kawasaki (Shingen'in) and Misawa no Tsubone (a concubine of Kobori Masakazu, the lord of Omi Komuro Domain).

There is also a record that a Korean envoy was sent to celebrate Ietsuna's birth. This was the only case in which a Korean envoy was sent to celebrate the birth of the eldest son of a Tokugawa Shogunate.

It is said that his father, Iemitsu, had decided that Ietsuna would be his successor from the moment he was born. One reason given for this is that there was a fight over succession between Iemitsu himself and his younger brother, Tadanaga, when they were young, but on the other hand, it is also said that Ietsuna was a long-awaited boy who was finally born after a long time of not being blessed with an heir, but the truth of this is unknown.

In December 1644, he changed his name to Ietsuna, and had his coming-of-age ceremony in April 1645. After this, he moved to the Nishinomaru in September 1650.

When his father, Iemitsu, died at age 48 on April 20, 1651 (Keian 4), Ietsuna was proclaimed shogun on August 18 (October 2) at Edo Castle, becoming the 4th Shogun and also being appointed Minister of the Interior. Even though he had come of age, he was still only 11 years old, and there were concerns about him taking the position of shogun at such a young age. However, on the contrary, this ended up demonstrating to the whole country that the hereditary system of shogun succession was solid.

In December, he moved to the main castle as Shogun. Following this precedent, all subsequent Shogun proclamations after Ietsuna (except for the 15th and final Shogun, Yoshinobu) were to take place in Edo, not Kyoto.

First half of his reign after assuming the post of Shogun

During the time of Ietsuna, the shogunate system that had been in place until the time of his father, Iemitsu, was further strengthened. In particular, he took a certain degree of consideration for outside daimyo and others, with Hoshina Masayuki, Iemitsu's half-brother and Ietsuna's uncle, as the leader.

In addition, the ban on adoption at the end of one's life was relaxed, the requirement of witnesses from daimyo's retainers was abolished, and a ban on suicide by martyrdom was issued; thus, a shift in policy was made from military rule that had relied on force to civil rule.

He declined the appointment of the Left Minister in April 1659. In 1664, he issued red seal letters of domain to feudal lords with fiefs of 10,000 koku or more, and in the following year, in 1665, he issued lists of domains to nobles, temples and shrines (Kanbun Inchi).

Relaxation of the ban on adoption at the end of life

In the early Edo period, the Edo Shogunate banned daimyo's late adoptions (adopted children arranged urgently to prevent the line from dying out when the head of a samurai family without an heir was on the verge of death due to an accident or sudden illness).

In order to succeed a samurai family, it was necessary to notify the lord of the family (for a daimyo, this meant the Tokugawa Shogunate) in advance and have one's status recognized as the legitimate son, and a late adopted son was unable to meet this condition.

In feudal lord families of rank above the rank of having a direct audience with the shogun, the heir was also required to have an audience with the shogun (Omenai). The reason why adoption at the end of one's life was so strictly prohibited is said to be as follows:

First, it was difficult to confirm the wishes of the head of the family in the case of a terminal adoption.
This was because they feared that vassals might commit illegal acts such as assassinating the head of the family and replacing him with a head who was more convenient for them.
However, the most important reason is that the shogunate was intent on weakening the power of the daimyo and strengthening its control, and the ban on adoption at the end of one's life was one of the means used to achieve this.

This was particularly evident in the early Edo period, when the ruling system had yet to be firmly established: from the establishment of the shogunate through the rule of the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, many feudal lord families were dissolved for lack of an heir, and it is recorded that the number of such families reached 61. While this was of great help in establishing the shogunate-han system, it also had a negative side in that the samurai who served those families (vassals, subordinate vassals, etc.) had no choice but to become ronin, which increased social unrest.

This reached its peak with the Keian Incident that occurred in 1651 (4th year of the Keian era).
This incident, in which Yui Masayuki and other ronin banded together to plot the overthrow of the shogunate, made it clear that the shogunate's policy of controlling the daimyo was creating new sources of instability. It is also said that one of the reasons why the Shimabara Rebellion, which occurred earlier from 1637 to the following year, was difficult to suppress was that many ronin joined the uprising. Together with the Shoo Incident in 1652, these events prompted a shift from the military government of the early Edo period to civil government.

Due to these circumstances and because the Shogunate's ruling system had been deemed to have reached a certain degree of completion after the era of Iemitsu, on December 11, 1655, under the initiative of Masayuki Hoshina, the Shogunate lifted the ban on terminal adoptions. However, approval of terminal adoptions required a procedure called "Hangen-mi-to", in which an official dispatched by the Shogunate would personally verify the survival of the head of the family and his intention to adopt.

However, later on, confirming the head of the family's survival became a ritual.
Also, although the rules regarding terminal adoption were relaxed, they were not allowed without limit.

The age limit for a head of family to adopt a child at the end of their life was 17 to 50 years old, and heads of family outside this age range were not allowed to adopt a child at the end of their life.

It was not until the third year of the Kanbun era (1663) that those under the age of 17 were permitted to enter the country, and in the third year of the Tenwa era (1683) that those over the age of 50 were permitted to enter the country.

Prohibiting suicide and changing values

Junshi is when a vassal or wife follows their lord or other relative to him when he dies. It was common not only in Japan but also around the world until the Middle Ages. There is no problem if the person committing junshi takes their own life of their own accord, but there were also cases where they were forced to die or made to junshi simply because they served their lord.

In the Edo period, wars ceased and the country was at peace, so the number of cases of death in battle, as in the Sengoku period, inevitably decreased. However, even if a lord died of natural causes, such as illness, retainers would sometimes commit suicide to show their loyalty.

In the early Edo period, the influence of military politics was still strong, and "suicide by martyrdom" was considered a samurai virtue.

However, in 1663, the shogunate orally communicated a ban on junshi, stating that it was "unrighteous and useless" (unrighteous and unprofitable: unbecoming of human nature).

The reason for this was to prevent the loss of talented people through suicide. It also demonstrated a lord-servant relationship appropriate for a time of peace, where vassals should serve the lord's household, not just the lord himself.

In 1683 (Tenwa 3), after the death of Tokugawa Ietsuna, the "prohibition of junshi (committing one's own death to one's family)" was added to the "Buke Shohatto," a basic law established by the Edo Shogunate to control the feudal lords, along with the "relaxation of the prohibition on adoption at the end of one's life," and was fully implemented.

From the latter half of his reign to his final days

The men known as the Kan'ei Elders died one after another during the Kanbun era, or retired from public life due to old age.
The Kan'ei Elders were politicians such as Matsudaira Nobutsuna who led the shogunate government and were appointed by Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third shogun of the Edo shogunate, after his death.

In other words, from Ietsuna's point of view, he was a shogunate retainer left behind by his father.

During the Kan'ei era (1624-1644), the Edo Shogunate consolidated its governing structure with the help of Iemitsu and his close aides from his childhood (the Six Men), centered around Nobutsuna.

When Iemitsu died of illness in 1651 (Keian 4), his eldest son, Tokugawa Ietsuna, became the 4th Shogun. As he was only 11 years old at the time, the shogunate government was led for the first 15 years of Ietsuna's reign by a collective governing system that included Nobutsuna, Iemitsu's half-brother and Ietsuna's uncle Hoshina Masayuki, Iemitsu's senior councilors Ii Naotaka and Sakai Tadakatsu, senior councilor Abe Tadaaki, his aide Nakane Masamori, and others such as Inaba Masanori and Sakai Tadakiyo.
Ultimately, this led to stability in the first half of Ietsuna's rule.

As a result, Sakai Tadayasu was appointed as Chief Advisor in their place in 1666, and during the latter half of his reign, during the Kanbun and Enpo periods, the shogunate government was run under Tadayasu's leadership, with a council of elder councilors and through Ietsuna's own orders.

In the latter half of his reign, reflecting on the Great Kan'ei Famine that occurred during Iemitsu's reign, emphasis was placed on agricultural policy as a measure to combat famine. He implemented nationwide distribution and economic policies, including thorough reform of religious sects, ordering the creation of a nationwide register of religious sect members, dispatching inspectors to various provinces, establishing rules for mountains and rivers in various provinces, and ordering Kawamura Zuiken to develop eastern and western shipping routes. Cultural projects such as the compilation of the Honcho Tsukan were also undertaken.

During the time of Ietsuna, the shogunate system was fully developed and relations between the shogunate and the Imperial Court were stable. Externally, there were incidents such as the Shakushain Uprising in Ezo, the English ship Return's request to resume trade, and the request for reinforcements from the Tei clan government, but the policy of national isolation that had existed since the time of Iemitsu was firmly maintained. During this period, there were also family disputes within feudal lord families, such as the Date Disturbance and the Echigo Disturbance.

His concubines Ofuru and Omanaru were favored by Ietsuna, and both became pregnant, but both ended up with stillbirths or miscarriages, and he was not blessed with boys. After that, Ietsuna was still unable to give birth to a legitimate son to succeed him, even in his mid-30s, and the issue of who would succeed the shogun became an urgent problem.

In early May, 1680, Ietsuna fell ill and was in critical condition. At the urging of Masatoshi Hotta, Ietsuna adopted Matsudaira Tsunayoshi, the youngest brother of Iemitsu, who was also Iemitsu's son, and the lord of Tatebayashi Domain, as his successor to the shogunate. He died on May 8, just after naming the successor.

He died at the age of 40 (38 years old). The cause of death is unknown, but it is said to have been an acute illness (heart attack, etc.). With Ietsuna's death, the system of direct lineage of the Tokugawa Shogunate succeeding the position of Shogun by his descendants came to an end.

From then on, if there was no legitimate son, the shogun would be chosen from one of the three Tokugawa families (the Owari, Kishu, and Mito Tokugawa families).

Ietsuna's virtues

When his father, Tokugawa Iemitsu, was still alive, the young Tokugawa Ietsuna heard a story from one of his retainers about a criminal who had been exiled (a punishment in the Edo period).
So, a question arises in Ietsuna's mind.

"What on earth are these sinners eating?" he wondered.

At the time, exiled people were not given food, and many of them died of starvation after spending days with only the clothes on their backs.

When his retainers could not answer Ietsuna's questions, Ietsuna asked, "Even though we saved their lives by exiling them, why are we not giving them food and letting them starve to death? Isn't that a contradiction?" Tokugawa Iemitsu, who heard this story from his retainers, was overjoyed and ordered his retainers to provide a certain amount of food to those who were exiled in the future.

His father, Iemitsu, sensed great potential in his eldest son, Ietsuna's words and is said to have ordered, "Providing food to the exiles should be Ietsuna's first policy."

The generosity of his servants in listening to their advice

When he was young, Tokugawa Ietsuna ordered his senior vassal Sakai Tadakatsu to remove a large rock from the garden because it was interfering with sword-fighting practice, such as swinging a bamboo sword.

However, Sakai Tadakatsu, who was ordered to do so, complained, "In order to get the stones out, we have to destroy the earthworks and walls. Please spare us." Matsudaira Nobutsuna then suggested, "How about digging up the earth and burying the stones?"
However, Sakai Tadakatsu was opposed to this.

"If Shogun Ietsuna were to run the government as he pleased, he would eventually become too selfish and become a tyrant, inevitably neglecting the people," he argued. In essence, he believed that there were things that could and could not be done in politics, and that it was important to clearly explain this to people so that they would understand, which impressed Matsudaira Nobutsuna.

It would not have been surprising if his father, Tokugawa Iemitsu, had not accepted the advice of his vassals and had simply executed them in anger. It was also a time when vassals who did not follow the lord's wishes could be punished. During Ietsuna's reign, the policies that had been put in place by the three generations from Ieyasu to Iemitsu were completed, and the country was at peace, stabilizing the political foundation.
It can be said that Ietsuna was so stable that he remained unshakable even when he became shogun at a young age.

On the other hand, he was also known for his extravagant spending. At the time of Iemitsu's death, the government finances were said to have been 5 million ryo, but this was largely spent on the great fire and the restoration of Edo Castle, and it is said that by the time of Ietsuna's death, the balance was less than 1 million ryo.
Subsequent shogunate governments frequently implemented austerity measures.