Tokugawa Yoshimune
Tokugawa Yoshimune | |
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Shōgun | |
In office 1716–1745 | |
Monarchs | |
Preceded by | Tokugawa Ietsugu |
Succeeded by | Tokugawa Ieshige |
Personal details | |
Born | 27 November 1684 Kii Province, Tokugawa shogunate (now Japan) |
Died | 12 July 1751 (aged 66) Edo, Tokugawa shogunate (now Tokyo, Japan) |
Spouse | Masako-Joō |
Children | Tokugawa Ieshige Tokugawa Munetake Tokugawa Genjo Tokugawa Munetada Yoshihime |
Parent |
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Signature | ![]() |
Tokugawa Yoshimune (徳川 吉宗, November 27, 1684 – July 12, 1751) was the eighth
Lineage
Yoshimune was not the son of any former shōgun. Rather, he was a member of a
Yoshimune was from the branch of Kii. The founder of the Kii house was one of Tokugawa Ieyasu's sons,
Yoshimune was closely related to the Tokugawa shōguns. His grandfather, Tokugawa Yorinobu, was a brother of second shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada, while Yoshimune's father, Tokugawa Mitsusada, was a first cousin of third shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu. Yoshimune thus was a second cousin to the fourth and fifth shōguns (both brothers) Tokugawa Ietsuna and Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, as well as a second cousin to Tokugawa Tsunashige, whose son became shōgun Tokugawa Ienobu.
Early life (1684–1716)
Tokugawa Yoshimune was born in 1684 in the rich Kii Province, a region which was then ruled by his father, Tokugawa Mitsusada. Yoshimune's childhood name was Tokugawa Genroku (徳川 源六). At that time, his second cousin Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was ruling in Edo as shōgun. Kii was a rich region of over 500,000 koku, but it was still in debt and had a lot to pay back to the shogunate.
In 1697, Genroku underwent the rites of passage and took the name Tokugawa Shinnosuke (徳川 新之助). In 1705, when Shinnosuke was just 21 years old, his father Mitsusada and two older brothers died. Thus, the ruling shōgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi appointed him daimyō of Kii. He took the name Tokugawa Yorimasa (頼方) and began to administer the province. Nonetheless, great financial debt which the domain had owed to the shogunate since his father's and even grandfather's time continued to burden the finances. What made things worse was that in 1707, a tsunami destroyed and killed many in the coastal areas of Kii Province. Yorimasa did his best to try to stabilize things in Kii, but relied on leadership from Edo.
In 1712, Shogun Ienobu died, and was succeeded by his son, the boy-shōgun
Family
- Father: Tokugawa Mitsusada
- Mother: Oyuri no Kata later Jōenin (1655–1726)
- Half siblings:
- Tokugawa Tsunanori (1665–1705) 4th daimyō of Kishū and married Tsuruhime, daughter of 5th shōgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi
- Jirokichi
- Tokugawa Yorimoto (1680–1705) 5th daimyō of Kishū
- Sakae-Hime married Uesugi Tsunanori of Yonezawa Domain
- Norihime married Ichijō Kaneteru
- Tsunahime
- Ikuhime married Satake Yoshimitsu
- Wife: Fushimi-no-Miya Masako [jp] (1691–1710) later Kantokuin
- Concubines:
- Osuma no Kata (1688–1713) later Shintokuin
- Okon no Kata (1696–1723) later Hontokuin
- Oume no Kata later Shinshin'in (1700–1721)
- Okume no Kata later Kakujuin (1697–1777)
- Osatsu no Kata
- Children:
- Tokugawa Ieshige born by Osuma no Kata
- Tokugawa Munetake by Okon no Kata
- Tokugawa Genjo (1719–1720) by Oume
- Tokugawa Munetada born by Oume
- Yoshihime (1721–1722) later Denjuin by Okume
- Illegitimate Son: Tenichi (mother was Shirabyoshi; sentenced to death during Yoshimune's reign)
- adopted daughters:
- Tonehime, married Date Munemura of Sendai Domain
- Takehime [jp] (1705–1772), daughter of Hirosada Seikan'in and adopted by Tokugawa Tsunayoshi and married Shimazu Tsugutoyo of Satsuma Domain later known as Joganin has 1 daughter, Kikuhime
Shōgun (1716–1745)
Yoshimune succeeded to the post of the shōgun in Shōtoku-1 (1716).[2] His term as shōgun lasted for 30 years. He is considered among the best of the Tokugawa shōguns.[3]
Yoshimune established the
Yoshimune is known for his financial reforms. He dismissed the conservative adviser Arai Hakuseki and he began what would come to be known as the Kyōhō Reforms.
Yoshimune also tried to resurrect the Japanese swordsmithing tradition. Since the beginning of the Edo period, it was quite difficult for smiths to make a living and to be supported by daimyōs, because of the lack of funds. But Yoshimune was quite unhappy with this situation, causing a decline of skills. And so, he gathered smiths from daimyō fiefs for a great contest, in 1721. The four winners who emerged were all great masters, Mondo no Shō Masakiyo (主水正正清), Ippei Yasuyo (一平安代), the 4th generation Nanki Shigekuni (南紀重国) and Nobukuni Shigekane (信国重包). But it did not work well to arouse interest, quite like tournaments in modern Japan.
Yoshimune also ordered the compilation of Kyōhō Meibutsu Chō (享保名物帳), listing the best and most famous swords all over Japan. This book allowed the beginning of the Shinshintō period of
Although foreign books had been strictly forbidden since 1640, Yoshimune relaxed the rules in 1720, starting an influx of foreign books and their translations into Japan, and initiating the development of Western studies, or rangaku.[4] Yoshimune's relaxation of the rules may have been influenced by a series of lectures delivered before him by the astronomer and philosopher Nishikawa Joken.[4] Engravement or official sanction of Chinese medical volume Taiping Huìmín Héjì Júfāng 『太平恵民和剤局方』 appears to have happened around this time.
Ōgosho (1745–1751)
In 1745, Yoshimune retired, took the title Ōgosho and left his public post to his oldest son. The title is the one that Tokugawa Ieyasu took on retirement in favor of his son Hidetada, who in turn took the same title on his retirement.
Yoshimune died on the 20th day of the 5th month of the year Kan'en-4 (July 12, 1751).[5] His Buddhist name was Yutokuin and he was buried in Kan'ei-ji.
Eras of Yoshimune's rule
The years in which Yoshimune was shōgun are more specifically identified by more than one
Ancestry
Ancestors of Tokugawa Yoshimune[6] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Notes
- ISBN 9780520203563.
- ^ a b Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du Japon, p. 417.
- ^ Screech, T. (2006). Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822. pp. 99, 238.
- ^ ISBN 9780226412351.
- ^ Screech, p. 128.
- ^ "Genealogy". Reichsarchiv (in Japanese). Retrieved 4 July 2018.
References
- ISBN 0-7007-1720-X
- Titsingh, Isaac. (1822). Illustrations of Japan. London: Ackerman.
- Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). [Siyun-sai Rin-siyo/Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland.
- Totman, Conrad. (1967). Politics in the Tokugawa bakufu, 1600–1843. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
External links
Media related to Tokugawa Yoshimune at Wikimedia Commons