Wednesday, 13 October 2010

Oda Nobunaga

Oda Nobunaga (June 23, 1534 – June 21, 1582) was a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. He was the second son of Oda Nobuhide, a deputy shugog (military governor) with land holdings in Owari province. Nobunaga lived a life of continuous military conquest, eventually conquering a third of Japanese daimyo before his death in 1582. His successor,Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a loyal Oda supporter, would eventually become the first man to conquer all of Japan.
Oda Nobunaga was born on June 23, 1534 and was given the childhood name of Kippōshi He was the second son of Oda Nobuhide. Through his childhood and early teenage years, he was well known for his bizarre behavior and received the name of Owari no Ōutsuke ( The Fool of Owari). With the introduction of firearms into Japan, though, he became known for his fondness of Tanegashima firearms. He was also known to run around with other youths from the area, without any regard to his own rank in society.
In 1551, Oda Nobuhide died unexpectedly and, during his funeral, Nobunaga was said to have acted outrageously, throwing the ceremonial incense at the altar. This act alienated many Oda retainers, convincing them of Nobunaga's mediocrity and lack of discipline and they began to side with his more soft-spoken and well-mannered brother,Nobuyuki.Hirate Masahide, who was a valuable mentor and retainer to Nobunaga, was ashamed by Nobunaga's behavior and performed seppuku. This had a huge effect on Nobunaga, who later built a temple to honor Masahide.
Though Nobunaga was Nobuhide's legitimate successor, the Oda clan was divided into many factions. Furthermore, the entire clan was technically under the control of Owari's shugo,Shiba Yoshimune. Thus,Oda Nobutomo, as the brother to the deceased Nobuhide and deputy of Owari Province's shugo, used the powerless Yoshimune as his puppet and challenged Nobunaga's place as Owari Provinces's new ruler. Nobutomo murdered Yoshimune when it was discovered that he supported and attempted to aid Nobunaga.
To increase his power, Nobunaga persuaded Oda Nobumitsu, a younger brother of Nobuhide, to join his side and, with Nobumitsu's help, slew Nobutomo in Kiyosu Castle, which later became Nobunaga's place of residence for over ten years. Taking advantage of the position of Shiba Yoshikane, Yoshimune's son, as the rightful shugo, Nobunaga forged an alliance with the Imagawa clan of Suruga Province and the Kira clan of Mikawa Province, as both clans had the same shugo and would have no excuse to decline. Additionally, this also ensured that the Imagawa clan would have to stop attacking Owari's borders.
Even though Nobuyuki and his supporters were still at large, Nobunaga decided to bring an army to Mino Province to aid Saito Dosan after Dōsan's son, Saitō Yoshitatsu, turned against him. The campaign failed, however, as Dōsan was killed and Yoshitatsu became the new master of Mino in 1556.
A few months later, Nobuyuki, with the support of Shibata Katsuie and Hayasi Hidesada, rebelled against Nobunaga. The three conspirators were defeated at the battle of Ino, but they were pardoned after the intervention of Tsuchida Gozen, the birth mother of both Nobunaga and Nobuyuki. The next year, however, Nobuyuki again planned to rebel. When Nobunaga was informed of this by Shibata Katsuie, he faked illness to get close to Nobuyuki and assassinated him in Kiyosu Castle.
By 1559, Nobunaga had eliminated all opposition within the clan and throughout Owari Province. He continued to use Shiba Yoshikane as an excuse to make peace with other daimyo, although it was later discovered that Yoshikane had secretly corresponded with the Kira and Imagawa clans, trying to oust Nobunaga and restore the Shiba clan's place. Nobunaga eventually cast him out, making alliances created in the Shiba clan's name void.
In 1560,Imagawa Yoshimoto gathered an army of 25,000 men and started his march toward kyoto, with the excuse of aiding the frail Ashikaga shogunate. The Matsudaira clan of Mikawa Province was also to join Yoshimoto's forces. In comparison, the Oda clan could rally an army of only 1,800, and the forces would also have to be split up to defend various forts at the border. Under such dire circumstances, Nobunaga was said to have performed his favorite Atsumori dance, before riding off with only a few attendants to pray in a shrine.
The Oda clan's generals did not believe that they would survive the attack from Imagawa Yoshimoto's army. Only the night before, Shibata Katsuie had tried in vain to change Oda Nobunaga's mind about a frontal attack; he kept reminding Nobunaga of the joint army's complete lack of manpower compared to the Imagawa soldiers, who, according to rumors, numbered 40,000 men.Hayashi Sado no Kami Hidesada, the remaining advisor from Nobuhide's days, even argued for surrender without fighting, using the same reasoning as Katsuie.
Nobunaga's scouts reported that Yoshimoto was resting his troops at a place called Dengaku-hazama, near a small village called Okehazama. Nobunaga knew the countryside well. Dengaku-hazama was a narrow gorge, an ideal place for a surprise attack if the conditions were right. The scouts added that the Imagawa army were celebrating their victories with food and drink while Yoshimoto viewed the heads. Nobunaga moved up towards Imagawa's camp, and set up a position some distance away.An array of flags and dummy troops made of straw and spare helmets gave the impression of a large host, while the real Oda army hurried round in a rapid march to get behind Yoshimoto's camp. Fortune and weather favored Nobunaga, for about mid-day the stifling heat gave way to a terrific thunderstorm. As the Imagawa samurai sheltered from the rain Nobunaga deployed his troops, and when the storm ceased they charged down upon the enemy in the gorge. So sudden was the attack that Yoshimoto thought a brawl had broken out among his men. He realized it was an attack when two samurai (Mōri Shinsuke and Hattori Koheita) charged up. One aimed a spear at him, which Yoshimoto deflected with his sword, but the second swung his blade and cut off Imagawa's head.
Rapidly weakening, the Imagawa clan no longer exerted control over the Matsudaira clan. In 1561, an alliance was forged between Oda Nobunaga and Matsudaira Motoyasu (later Tokugawa Ieyasu), despite the decades-old hostility between the two clans. Tradition dates this battle as the time that Nobunaga first noticed the talents of the sandal bearer who would eventually become Toyotomei Hideyoshi.

Tokugawa Hidetada

Tokugawa Hidetada ( May 2,1579— March 14,1632) was the second shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Tokugawa bakufu.
Tokugawa Hidetada was born to Tokugawa Ieyasu and one of his many consorts in 1579. His exact birthdate is unknown. This was shortly after Hidetada's stepmother (Ieyasu's official wife) and his half-brother Tokugawa Nobuyasu were executed on suspicion of plotting with Takeda Shingen to assassinate Ieyasu. By killing his wife and her supposed co-conspirators, Ieyasu declared his position in the conflict between the Oda clan under Oda Nobunaga and the Takeda under Takeda Shingen.
The traditional power base of the Tokugawa clan was Mikawa. In 1590, the new ruler of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi led Tokugawa Ieyasu in attacking the domain of the Hojo in what became known as the Siege of Odawara (1590). Hideyoshi enlisted Ieyasu for this campaign by promising to exchange the five provinces under Ieyasu's control for the eight Kantoprovinces, including the city of Edo. In order to keep Ieyasu from defecting to the Hojo side (since the Hōjō and the Tokugawa were formerly on friendly terms), Hideyoshi took the eleven-year-old Nagamaru as a hostage. In 1592 Hideyoshi presided over Nagamaru's coming of age ceremony; it was then that Ieyasu's son dropped his childhood name, Nagamaru, and assumed the name Hidetada. He was named the heir of the Tokugawa family, being the eldest surviving son of Ieyasu, and his favorite (since Ieyasu's eldest son had been previously executed, and his second son was adopted by Hideyoshi while still an infant). In 1593, Hidetada returned to his father's side.
Knowing his death would come before his son Toyotomi Hideyori came of age, Hideyoshi named five regents--one of whom was Hidetada's father, Ieyasu--to rule in his son's place. Hideyoshi hoped that the bitter rivalry among the regents would prevent any one of them from seizing power. But after Hideyoshi died in 1598 and Hideyori became nominal ruler, the regents forgot all vows of eternal loyalty and were soon vying for control of the nation. Tokugawa Ieyasu was one of the strongest of the five regents, and began to rally around himself an Eastern faction. A Western faction rallied around Ishida Mitsunari. The two factions clashed at the Battle of Sekigahara, which set the stage for Tokugawa rule.
In 1600 Hidetada led 16,000 of his father's men in a campaign to contain the Western-aligned Uesugi clan in Shinano. Ieyasu then ordered Hidetada to march his troops to Sekigahara in anticipation of the decisive battle against the Western faction. But the Sanada Clan managed to tie Hidetada's forces down, meaning that he arrived too late to assist in his father's narrow but decisive victory. Hidetada and Ieyasu's relationship never recovered.
In 1603 Emperor Go-Yozei granted Ieyasu the title of shogun. Thus Hidetada became the heir to the shogunate. In 1605 Ieyasu abdicated as shogun in favor of Hidetada.
In order to avoid his predecessor's fate, Ieyasu established a dynastic pattern soon after becoming shogun by abdicating in favor of Hidetada in 1605. Ieyasu retained significant power until his death in 1616; but Hidetada nevertheless assumed a role as formal head of the bakufu bureaucracy.
After Hidetada became shogun he married Oeyo (of the Oda family of the Taira clan) and they had two sons, Tokugawa Iemitsu and Tokugawa Tadanga. They also had two daughters, one of whom, Sen hime, married twice. The other daughter,Kazuko hime, married Emperor Go-Mizunoo {of descent from the Fujiwara clan}.
Much to the dismay of Ieyasu, in 1612, Shogun Hidetada engineered a marriage between Sen hime and Toyotomi Hideyori, who was living as a common citizen in Osaka Castle with his mother. When this failed to quell Hideyori's intrigues, Ōgosho Ieyasu and Shogun Hidetada brought an army to Osaka. Father and son once again disagreed on how to conduct this campaign against the recalcitrant Toyotomi forces in Osaka. Ieyasu favored a conservative approach, while Hidetada preferred a direct, brutal attack. Hidetada prevailed; in the ensuing attack Hideyori and his mother were forced to commit suicide. Even Hideyori's infant son ( kunimatsu), grandson of Hidetada, was not spared. Ieyasu never forgave Hidetada for this loss. Only Sen hime, Ieyasu's favorite granddaughter, was spared, and later re-married and had a new family.
After Ieyasu's death in 1616, Hidetada took control of the bakufu. He strengthened the Tokugawa hold on power by improving relations with the Imperial court. To this end he married his daughter Kazuko hime to Emperor Go-Mizunoo. The product of that marriage, a girl, eventually succeeded to the throne of Japan to become Empress Meisho.The city of Edo was also heavily developed under his reign.
In Genna 9 (1623) Hidetada resigned the government to his eldest son and heir,Tokugawa Iemitsu. Like his father before him, Hidetada became Ogosho, or Retired Shogun, and retained effective power. He enacted Draconian anti-Christian measures, which Ieyasu had only considered: he banned Christian books, forced Christian daimyo to commit suicide, ordered all other Christians to apostasize, and executed the fifty-five Christians (both Japanese and foreign) who refused to renounce Christ or to go into hiding in Nagasaki in 1628.
Ogosho Hidetada died in Kan'ei 9, on the 24th day of the 1st month (1632).

Tokugawa Iesato

Tokugawa Iesato ( August 24, 1863 – June 5, 1940) was the first head of the Tokugawa clan after the overthrow of the Tokugawa bakufu, and a figure in Japanese politics during the meiji,Taisho and early Showa period Japan.
Tokugawa Iesato was born to the Tayasu branch of the Tokugawa clan, under the name Kamenosuke, he became its 16th head, following the resignation of the last Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu His brothers were Tokugawa Satotaka and Tokugawa Takachiyo, who also held the Tayasu headship at different times. Iesato was also briefly the daimyo of the short-lived Shizuoka han, before the abolition of the han system in the early 1870s. Though he was Yoshinobu's adopted son, his guardian at the time was Matsudaira Naritami, the former lord of the Tsuyama domain.
In 1877, Iesato was sent to Great Britain for studies. He returned to Japan in 1882, and was given the title of kōshaku (prince) under the kazoku peerage system. He became a member of the House of Peers of the diet of Japan, from its creation in 1890, and served as President of the House of Peers from 1901-1933. When the administration of Prime minister Yamamoto Gonnohyoe was brought down by the Siemens scandal there was a strong movement to have Tokugawa Iesato nominated to be his successor. Following World War I, Iesato served on the Japanese delegation to the Washington Naval Conference. His support of the United States position on the 10:10:6 division of naval strength between the United States, Great Britain and Japan drew considerable wrath from the ultra-rightist movements and conservative factions within the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Iesato is remembered for having recovered the political fortunes and reputation of the Tokugawa family, holding many senior government positions before his retirement, including a tenure as 6th head of the Japanese Red Cross Society, head of the Japan-America Society, and President of the national organizing committee for the 1940 Olympics.
Iesato is quoted as once having said about his adoptive father: "Yoshinobu destroyed the Tokugawa house; I rebuilt it."
His grave is at the Tokugawa family cemetery at the temple of Kanei-ji in Ueno,Tokyo. He was succeeded by Tokugawa Iemasa,