Hidetada Tokugawa

**Hidetada Tokugawa** is Ieyasu's third son and successor. He fought the Sanada army at Ueda Castle during the Sekigahara campaign and lost the battle horribly. He was unable to assist the Eastern army and was said to have earned his father's scorn. Still, he became the second Tokugawa shogun. He is the main antagonist in Spirit of Sanada and one of the supporting antagonists in Crossroads, being the main antagonist in Chacha's story.

## Role in GamesEdit

### Samurai WarriorsEdit

Appearing in the first title, he only joins the Tokugawa offensive at Osaka, being a minor frontline unit or defending the supply depot in Kunoichi's story. His role is greatly expanded in *Samurai Warriors 2,*where Hidetada appears on the Tokugawa's side at Ueda Castle, Ōsaka Castle, and Edo Castle, often in a position of command. In the Uesugi version of the siege of Edo Castle, Hidetada is guarding the castle in his father's absence and is in the main keep. If he is defeated before Ieyasu's arrival, his father will grieve for his son. During Musashi's story, he becomes the land's ruler but is killed by Hideyori's army at Edo Castle. With his dying breath, he pleads Hideyori to create the world their fathers wanted: a world of peace.

He appears in *Samurai Warriors 4* and *Samurai Warriors 4-II* as the commander for the siege of Ueda and Osaka. Despite fulfilling a similar role in both titles, his appearance and general arrogance are greatly amplified to a comical extent in the latter game, often relying on his underlings to get him out of trouble. In Nobuyuki's story, he plays a larger role in the narrative and makes it past Ueda to reinforce Sekigahara in time.

During *Spirit of Sanada*, Hidetada is presented as a more serious and competent character, still keeping some arrogance, where he interrupts Nobuyuki's meeting with the Tokugawa after the first Ueda Castle siege to express his misgivings about siding with the Sanada. Ieyasu angrily sends him away, but Hidetada continues to distrust Nobuyuki. He joins his father's offensive at Odawara Castle and clears the path for the Toyotomi with his father's troops against two Hojo castles at Izu Hakone. During the Sekigahara campaign, in order to improve his reputation, he ignores Nobuyuki's advice and commences another siege of Ueda. After their defeat, with the outnumbered Sanada putting up a valiant defense and even managing to pursue the Tokugawa troops out of their territory, Hidetada aids Nobuyuki's plea for Masayuki and Yukimura's clemency, sparing both from execution.

In the succeeding years, Hidetada eventually befriends Nobuyuki. During the winter siege of Osaka Castle, Hidetada rescues his father from Yukimura's charge. Once a ceasefire is organized by both parties, Nobuyuki privately entreaties Hidetada to spare Yukimura's life. Hidetada accepts and tries to force Yukimura to submit to him through a siege; with the Toyotomi all but gone, Yukimura prevails over him and Hidetada fails to capture him. After Yukimura dies, Hidetada formally becomes the Shogun. Hidetada's failure to save Yukimura and his new responsibilities strains his friendship with Nobuyuki, but the two eventually make amends a year after the siege.

When rumors circulate regarding Hidetada's preferential treatment for the Sanada due to personal bias, with some even claiming he intentionally threw the battle at Ueda Castle, Nobuyuki speaks with Hidetada and voluntarily has him relocate away from Ueda. Tearfully, Hidetada accepts his friend's wish, and shifts the Sanada's domain elsewhere while putting an enraged front.

### Warriors Orochi

Throughout the *Warriors Orochi* series, Hidetada serves as Ieyasu's replacement officer when players assume his father's role.

In Warriors Orochi 5, due to the time distortion, Hidetada was forced to ally with the Orochi army due to them capturing Ieyasu Tokugawa.

### KessenEdit

Hidetada, often called "Hide Tokugawa", is Ieyasu's bumbling and seemingly incompetent son in *Kessen*. Though given large armies, he habitually loses against more intelligent and experienced opponents. Although he desires to make him proud, he is often berated by his father. In an effort to compensate for his loss at Ueda Castle, he orders for Masayuki's assassination and gravely disappoints his father. When he is named the shogun, Hidetada invokes his own desires to rule and becomes more confident in himself. He volunteers to lead the troops at Osaka Castle and, though Ieyasu is pleased with his son's eagerness, he is denied.

## Character Information

### Personality

In his anime incarnation, Hidetada is someone who is frustrated by the shadow his father has cast on him. Pressured to take on odds that he cannot actually take, he dislikes war heavily, yet believes that he must excel in the field to become closer to his father as well as to earn the respect of his retainers. He initially dislikes Nobuyuki, seeing him as someone from a lower social class, and haughtily dismisses Nobuyuki's honest concerns and opinions. Eventually, after his life was spared after Ueda Castle, Hidetada warms up and Nobuyuki gives the future shogun the confidence to create his own world, with the belief that, while Ieyasu was suited for war, Hidetada was conversely suited for peace.

### Character SymbolismEdit

Hidetada is symbolized by the kanji for "sharpness" (尖) and "inheritance" (継).

Masamune, a Kamakura swordsmith, forms the namesake of his default weapon. He has been famed for making masterful swords and weapons that continue to be held in high esteem today. The Tokugawa family still has one of his swords within their possession. Edo period folklore notes that a swordsmith who allegedly used Masamune's techniques was unfavored by Ieyasu.

Hidetada's rare weapon is called Dōjikiri Yasutsuna in the Japanese script. According to myths and folklore, the sword is heralded as one of the Five Great Swords of Japan and was forged during the Heian Period by the swordsmith, Yasutsuna, it was wielded by Minamoto no Yorimitsu. He used it to behead a *shuten-dōji*, a supernatural being often called the strongest type of Japanese demon. Passed down through various clans, it has been said to have once been given to Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and other famous daimyo of the Warring States period. It was reportedly used during the Edo Period to test its sharpness, effortlessly slicing through six corpses of executed criminals. The Tokugawa clan never possessed this particular sword, but other weapons crafted from Yasutsuna has been passed throughout the ages.

His DLC weapon, Mikatzuki Munechika, is the sword given to Hidetada by Kodai-in when he became shogun. It's a long sword that was forged during the Heian Period with a traditional crescent moon-shaped curve to the blade. It is famed for its beauty as one of the Five Swords of Japan.

One of the gifts that Hidetada will give in *Spirit of Sanada* is a carrot which references the Tokugawa family history. A tactic that Ieyasu employed to successfully father children in the twilight years of his life was adopting a healthy plant-based diet. It included various root vegetables and herbs like Asian ginseng.

### Voice ActorsEdit

* Tyler Walker - Samurai Warriors TV series (English)
* Alessandro Juliani - Kessen (English)
* Dieter Maise - Samurai Warriors TV series (German)
* Hiroshi Okamoto - Samurai Warriors 2~3 (Japanese)
* Keisuke Baba - Samurai Warriors 2: Empires (Japanese)
* Shōta Ebina - Sengoku Musou TV series (Japanese)
* Yuusuke Handa - Samurai Warriors series, Warriors Orochi 5 (Japanese)
* Patrick Seitz - Samurai Warriors Crossroads (English)
* Daisuke Sakaguchi - Kessen (Japanese)

## Trivia

* Hidetada is given a new unique moveset in Crossroads to separate himself from the generic weapon users.