Tokugawa Iemitsu
Shōgun | |
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In office 1623–1651 | |
Monarchs | |
Preceded by | Tokugawa Hidetada |
Succeeded by | Tokugawa Ietsuna |
Personal details | |
Born | Edo, Tokugawa shogunate (now Tokyo, Japan) | August 12, 1604
Died | June 8, 1651 Edo, Tokugawa shogunate | (aged 46)
Children |
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Parents | |
Signature | |
Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川 家光, August 12, 1604 – June 8, 1651) was the third
Early life (1604–1617)
Tokugawa Iemitsu was born on 12 August 1604. He was the eldest son of
Not much is known of Iemitsu's early life; his childhood name was Takechiyo (竹千代). He had two sisters, Senhime and Masako, and a brother, who would become a rival, Tadanaga. Tadanaga was his parents' favorite. However, Ieyasu made it clear that Iemitsu would be next in line as shōgun after Hidetada.
An obsolete spelling of his given name is Iyemitsu.
Family
Parents
- Father: Tokugawa Hidetada (徳川 秀忠, May 2, 1581 – March 14, 1632
- Mother: Lady Oeyo (於江与; 1573 – September 15, 1626)
- Sibling from Mother: Toyotomi Sadako (1592–1658), adopted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Yodo-dono later married Kujō Yukiie, daughter of Toyotomi Hidekatsu
- Wet nurse: Lady Kasuga (春日局, Kasuga no Tsubone, 1579 – October 26, 1643)
Consorts and issue:
- Wife: Takatsukasa Takako (1622–1683) later Honriin, Takatsukasa Nobufusa's daughter
- Concubine: Ofuri no Kata (d. 1640) later Jishōin (自証院)
- Chiyohime (千代姫, 29 April 1637 – 10 January 1699), first daughter
- Concubine: Oraku no Kata (1621–1653) later Hōjuin (宝樹院), Aoki Toshinaga's daughter (青木利長娘)
- Tokugawa Ietsuna (徳川 家綱, 7 September 1641 – 4 June 1680), first son
- Concubine: Omasa no Kata (おまさの方)
- Tokugawa Kamematsu (17 April 1643– 2 September 1647), second son
- Concubine: Onatsu no Kata (順性院; 1622-1683) later Junshōin (順性院), Fujieda Shigeya's daughter (藤枝重家娘)
- Tokugawa Tsunashige (徳川 綱重, 28 June 1644 - 29 October 1678), third son
- Concubine: Otama no Kata (1627–1705) later Keishoin (桂昌院), Honjo Sonsei's daughter (本庄宗正)
- Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (徳川 綱吉, February 23, 1646 – February 19, 1709), fourth son
- Concubine: Orisa no Kata (d. 1674) later Jokoin (定光院)
- Tokugawa Tsurumatsu (1 February 1647 – 22 August 1648), fifth son
- Concubine: Oman no Kata (1624–1711) later Eikoin (永光院)
- Concubine: Okoto no Kata (1614-1691) later Hoshin'in (芳心院)
Adopted Daughters:
- Kametsuruhime (1613–1630), daughter of Tamahime with Maeda Toshitsune and married Mōri Tadahiro, son of Mōri Tadamasa of Tsuyama Domain
- Tsuruhime (1618–1671), daughter of Matsudaira Tadanao and married Kujō Michifusa had 3 daughters: the first married Kujō Kaneharu the second and the third married Asano Tsunaakira
- Manhime (1620–1700), daughter of Tamahime with Maeda Toshitsune and married Asano Mitsuakira had 3 sons: Asano Tsunaakira, Asano Naganao, Asano Nagateru
- Oohime, daughter of Tokugawa Yorifusa and married Maeda Mitsutaka had 1 son: Maeda Tsunanori
- Tsuhime (1636–1717) daughter of Ikeda Mitsumasa and married Ichijō Norisuke had 1 son: Ichijō Kaneteru
Tokugawa heir (1617–1623)
Iemitsu came of age in 1617 and dropped his childhood name in favor of Tokugawa Iemitsu. He also was installed officially as the heir to the Tokugawa shogunate. The only person to contest this position was his younger brother Tokugawa Tadanaga. A fierce rivalry began to develop between the brothers.
From an early age Iemitsu practiced the
He married Takatsukasa Takako, daughter of Takatsukasa Nobufusa at 12 December 1623. His relationship with Takako was good but Takako had three miscarriages.
Shogunal regency (1623–1632)
In 1623, when Iemitsu was nineteen,
In 1626, shōgun Iemitsu and retired shōgun Hidetada visited
In Kan'ei 9, on the 24th day of the 2nd month (1632), Ōgosho Hidetada died,[4] and Iemitsu could assume real power. Worried that his brother Tokugawa Tadanaga might assassinate him, however, he ruled carefully until his brother's death by seppuku in 1633.
Shōgun (1632–1651)
Hidetada left his advisors, all veteran
His sankin-kōtai system forced daimyōs to reside in Edo in alternating sequence, spending a certain amount of time in Edo, and a certain amount of time in their home provinces. It is often said that one of the key goals of this policy was to prevent the daimyōs from amassing too much wealth or power by separating them from their home provinces, and by forcing them to regularly devote a sizable sum to funding the immense travel expenses associated with the journey (along with a large entourage) to and from Edo. The system also involved the daimyōs' wives and heirs remaining in Edo, disconnected from their lord and from their home province, serving essentially as hostages who might be harmed or killed if the daimyōs were to plot rebellion against the shogunate.[5]
Anti-Europeanization edicts
The century-long presence of Catholic traders and missionaries in Japan ended in the 1630s when Iemitsu ordered the expulsion of nearly every European from the country. European access to trade relations with Japan was restricted to one Dutch ship each year. Iemitsu's policies on this matter were reinforced after the execution of two Portuguese men who came to plead for the re-establishment of Japan's earlier foreign trade policy. By the end of the 1630s, Iemitsu had issued a series of edicts more extensively detailing a system of restrictions on the flow of people, goods, and information in and out of the country.
Over the course of the 1630s, Iemitsu issued a series of edicts restricting Japan's dealings with the outside world. The most famous of those edicts was the so-called Sakoku Edict of 1635, which contained the main restrictions introduced by Iemitsu. With it, he forbade every Japanese ship and person to travel to another country, or to return to Japanese shores. The punishment for violation was death. Japanese, who had since the 1590s traveled extensively in East and Southeast Asia (and, in rare instances, much farther afield), were now forbidden from leaving the country or returning, under pain of death.
The edict offered lavish gifts and awards for anyone who could provide information about priests and their followers who secretly practiced and spread their religion across the country. Furthermore, every newly arrived ship was required to be thoroughly examined for Catholic priests and followers. The document pays extremely close attention to every detail regarding incoming foreign ships. For example, merchants coming from abroad had to submit a list of the goods they were bringing with them before being granted permission to trade. Additional provisions specified details of the timing and logistics of trade. For example, one clause declares that the "date of departure homeward for foreign ships shall not be later than the twentieth day of the ninth month". In addition to this, Iemitsu forbade alterations of the set price for raw silk and thus made sure that competition between trading cities was brought to a minimum.
In 1637, an armed revolt arose against Iemitsu's anti-Christian policies in Shimabara, but there were other reasons involved, such as overly-high taxation and cruel treatment of peasants by the local lord. The period domestic unrest is known as the Shimabara Rebellion.[1] Thousands were killed in the shogunate's suppression of the revolt and countless more were executed afterwards.[6] The fact that many of the rebels were Christians was used by the Bakufu as a convenient pretext for expelling the Portuguese and restricting the Dutch East India Company to Dejima in Nagasaki.
Following the edicts, Japan remained very much connected to international commerce, information, and cultural exchange, though only through four avenues. Nagasaki was the center of trade and other dealings with the Dutch East India Company, and with independent Chinese merchants.
Relations with Imperial court
In 1643 Empress Meisho abdicated the throne. She was succeeded by her younger half-brother (Go-Mizunoo's son by a consort) Emperor Go-Kōmyō, who disliked the shogunate for its violent and barbaric ways. He repeatedly made insulting comments about Iemitsu and his eldest son and heir, Tokugawa Ietsuna.
Death
In 1651 shōgun Iemitsu died at the age of 47, being the first Tokugawa shōgun whose reign ended with death and not abdication. He was accorded a posthumous name of Taiyūin,[1] also known as Daiyūin (大猷院) and buried in Taiyu-in Temple, Nikko.[8] Iemitsu had expanded Nikkō Tōshō-gū prior to his death, but was careful to avoid iconography for his mausoleum that could be seen as surpassing that of his grandfather.[9] He was succeeded by his eldest son and heir, Tokugawa Ietsuna.
Honours
- Senior First Rank (July 4, 1651; posthumous)
Eras of Iemitsu's bakufu
The years in which Iemitsu was shōgun are more specifically identified by more than one
Ancestry
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Notes
- ^ a b c Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Tokugawa, Iemitsu" in Japan Encyclopedia, pp. 976-977, p. 976, at Google Books; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File Archived 2012-05-24 at archive.today.
- ^ Louis Crompton, Homosexuality p. 439
- ^ Titsingh, J. (1834). Annales des empereurs du Japon, p. 410.
- ^ Titsingh, p. 411.
- ^ Vaporis, Constantine. Tour of Duty. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2008.
- ^ Screech, T. (2006). Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822. p. 85.
- ^ Arano, Yasunori. "The Entrenchment of the Concept of "National Seclusion". Acta Asiatica 67 (1994). pp. 83–103.
Arano, Yasunori. Sakoku wo minaosu 「鎖国」を見直す. Kawasaki: Kawasaki Shimin Academy, 2003.
Kato, Eiichi. "Research Trends in the Study of the History of Japanese Foreign Relations at the Start of the Early Modern Period: On the Reexamination of 'National Seclusion' – From the 1970's to 1990's." Acta Asiatica 67 (1994). pp. 1–29.
Tashiro, Kazui and Susan D. Videen. "Foreign Relations during the Edo Period: Sakoku Reexamined". Journal of Japanese Studies 8:2 (1982). pp. 283–306.
Toby, Ronald. "Reopening the Question of Sakoku: Diplomacy in the Legitimation of the Tokugawa Bakufu", Journal of Japanese Studies 3:2 (1977). pp. 323–363. - ^ Bodart-Bailey, Beatrice. (1999). Kaempfer's Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed, p. 440.
- ^ Mausoleum of Tokugawa Iemitsu (Historical marker). Nikkō Tōshō-gū: Nikkō Tōshō-gū. 2023.
- ^ Titsingh, pp. 410–412.
- ^ "Genealogy". Reichsarchiv (in Japanese). Retrieved 4 July 2018.
References
- ISBN 9780824820664; OCLC 246417677
- Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
- Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Nihon Ōdai Ichiran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 5850691.
- Totman, Conrad. (1967). Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1600–1843. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. OCLC 279623
External links
- Media related to Tokugawa Iemitsu at Wikimedia Commons