page_title: Tokugawa Ieyasu
section_title: Shōgun (1603–1605)
hierarchical_section_title: Tokugawa Ieyasu / Shōgun (1603–1605)
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Tokugawa Ieyasu as a Shintō Deity Tōshō-daigongen. Tokugawa is in his old age. 日本語: 徳川家康の肖像。江戸時代、17世紀。徳川は老いです。
context_page_description: Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
  He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
  Son of a minor daimyo, Tokugawa once lived as a hostage, on behalf of his father, under another Daimyo. He later succeeded as daimyo after his father's death, serving as vassal and general under Oda Nobunaga, building up his strength. After Oda's death, Tokugawa was briefly a rival of fellow Oda subordinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi, before declaring allegiance to Toyotomi and fighting on his behalf. Under Toyotomi, Tokugawa was relocated to the Kanto plains in eastern Japan, away from the Toyotomi power base in Osaka. He built his castle in the fishing village of Edo. He was to become the most powerful daimyo and the most senior officer under the Toyotomi regime.
  Tokugawa preserved his strength in Toyotomi's failed attempt to conquer Korea. After Toyotomi's death, Ieyasu seized power in 1600, after the Battle of Sekigahara.
context_section_description: On March 24, 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu received the title of shōgun from Emperor Go-Yōzei. Ieyasu was 60 years old. He had outlasted all the other great men of his times: Nobunaga, Shingen, Hideyoshi, and Kenshin. As shōgun, he used his remaining years to create and solidify the Tokugawa shogunate, which ushered in the Edo period, and was the third shogunal government (after the Kamakura (Minamoto) and the Ashikaga). He claimed descent from the Minamoto clan, by way of the Nitta clan. His descendants would marry into the Taira clan and the Fujiwara clan. The Tokugawa shogunate would rule Japan for the next 260 years.
  Following a well established Japanese pattern, Ieyasu abdicated his official position as shōgun in 1605. His successor was his son and heir, Tokugawa Hidetada. There may have been several factors that contributed to his decision, including his desire to avoid being tied up in ceremonial duties, to make it harder for his enemies to attack the real power center, and to secure a smoother succession of his son. The abdication of Ieyasu had no effect on the practical extent of his powers or his rule; but Hidetada nevertheless assumed a role as formal head of the shogunal bureaucracy.
caption: Tokugawa Ieyasu as shōgun
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