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The is a Japanese dynasty that was formerly a powerful ''
daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominal ...
'' family. They nominally descended from
Emperor Seiwa was the 56th emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 清和天皇 (56)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Seiwa's reign spanned the years from 858 through 876.He was also the predecessor of Takeda ryu. T ...
(850–880) and were a branch of the
Minamoto clan was one of the surnames bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the imperial family who were excluded from the line of succession and demoted into the ranks of the nobility from 1192 to 1333. The practice was most prevalent during th ...
(Seiwa Genji) through the
Matsudaira clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of t ...
. The early history of this clan remains a mystery. Members of the clan ruled Japan as ''
shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamak ...
s'' during the
Edo Period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...
from 1603 to 1867.


History

Minamoto no Yoshishige (1135–1202), grandson of
Minamoto no Yoshiie Minamoto No Yoshiie (源 義家; 1039 – 4 August 1106), also known as Hachimantarō, was a Minamoto clan samurai of the late Heian period, and '' Chinjufu-shōgun'' (Commander-in-chief of the defense of the North). The first son of Minamoto ...
(1041–1108), was the first to take the name of Nitta. He sided with his cousin
Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1192 until 1199.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako who acted as regent (''shikken'') after his ...
against the Taira clan (1180) and accompanied him to Kamakura. Nitta Yoshisue, 4th son of Yoshishige, settled at Tokugawa (Kozuke province) and took the name of that place. Their provincial history book did not mention Minamoto clan or Nitta clan. The nominal originator of the
Matsudaira clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of t ...
was reportedly Matsudaira Chikauji, who was originally a poor Buddhist monk. He reportedly descended from Nitta Yoshisue in the 8th generation and witnessed the ruin of the Nitta in their war against the Ashikaga. He settled at Matsudaira (Mikawa province) and was adopted by his wife's family. Their provincial history book claimed that this original clan was Ariwara clan. Because this place is said to have been reclaimed by Ariwara Nobumori, one theory holds that Matsudaira clan was related to
Ariwara no Narihira was a Japanese courtier and '' waka'' poet of the early Heian period. He was named one of both the Six Poetic Geniuses and the Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses, and one of his poems was included in the ''Ogura Hyakunin Isshu'' collection. He i ...
. Matsudaira Nobumitsu (15th century), son of Chikauji, was in charge of
Okazaki Castle is a Japanese castle located in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. At the end of the Edo period, Okazaki Castle was home to the Honda clan, ''daimyō'' of Okazaki Domain, but the castle is better known for its association with Tokugawa Ieyasu an ...
, and strengthened the authority of his family in the Mikawa province. Nobumitsu's great-great-grandson
Matsudaira Kiyoyasu was the 7th lord over the Matsudaira clan during the Sengoku period (16th century) of Japan. Kiyoyasu was the grandfather of the third "great unifier of Japan", Tokugawa Ieyasu. Biography Kiyoyasu gained control of the whole of northern Mika ...
made his clan strong, but was assassinated. In 1567, Matsudaira Motonobu – then known as
Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...
(1542–1616) – grandson of Kiyoyasu, was recognized by
Emperor Ōgimachi was the 106th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He reigned from November 17, 1557, to his abdication on December 17, 1586, corresponding to the transition between the Sengoku period and the Azuchi–Momoyama p ...
as a descendant of Seiwa Genji; he also started the family name Tokugawa. The clan rose to power at the end of the
Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...
, and to the end of the
Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...
they ruled Japan as ''
shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamak ...
s''. There were fifteen Tokugawa ''shōguns''. Their dominance was so strong that some history books use the term "Tokugawa era" instead of "Edo period". Their principal family shrine is the Tōshō-gū in
Nikkō is a city located in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 80,239 in 36,531 households, and a population density of 55 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . It is a popular destination for Japanese and ...
, and principal temple is at
Kan'ei-ji (also spelled Kan'eiji or Kaneiji) is a Tendai Buddhism, Buddhist temple in Tokyo, Japan, founded in 1625 during the Kan'ei era by Tenkai, in an attempt to emulate the powerful religious center Enryaku-ji, in Kyoto. The main object of worship is ...
in
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
. Heirlooms of the clan are partly administered by the Tokugawa Memorial Foundation. After the death of Ieyasu, in 1636, the heads of the ''
gosanke The , also called simply , or even , were the most noble three branches of the Tokugawa clan of Japan: Owari, Kii, and Mito, all of which were descended from clan founder Tokugawa Ieyasu's three youngest sons, Yoshinao, Yorinobu, and Yorifusa ...
'' (the three branches with
fiefs A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form ...
in Owari, Kishū, and Mito) also bore the Tokugawa surname, so did the three additional branches, known as the ''
gosankyō The were three branches of the Tokugawa clan of Japan. They were descended from the eighth of the fifteen Tokugawa shōguns, Yoshimune (1684–1751). Yoshimune established the ''Gosankyo'' to augment (or perhaps to replace) the ''Gosanke'' ...
'': the Tayasu (1731), Hitotsubashi (1735), and Shimizu (1758) family, after the ascension of
Tokugawa Yoshimune was the eighth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1716 until his abdication in 1745. He was the son of Tokugawa Mitsusada, the grandson of Tokugawa Yorinobu, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lineage Yoshimu ...
. Once a
shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamak ...
died without a living heir, both the heads of ''
gosanke The , also called simply , or even , were the most noble three branches of the Tokugawa clan of Japan: Owari, Kii, and Mito, all of which were descended from clan founder Tokugawa Ieyasu's three youngest sons, Yoshinao, Yorinobu, and Yorifusa ...
'' (except Mito-Tokugawa family) and ''
gosankyō The were three branches of the Tokugawa clan of Japan. They were descended from the eighth of the fifteen Tokugawa shōguns, Yoshimune (1684–1751). Yoshimune established the ''Gosankyo'' to augment (or perhaps to replace) the ''Gosanke'' ...
'' had priority to succeed his position.Iwanami Nihonshi Jiten, ''Tokugawa Gosanke'', ''Tokugawa Owari-ke'', ''Tokugawa Kii-ke'', and ''Tokugawa Mito-ke'' Many ''daimyōs'' descended from cadet branches of the clan, however, remained the surname Matsudaira; examples include the Matsudaira of Fukui and Aizu. Members of the Tokugawa clan intermarried with prominent daimyo and the Imperial family. On November 9, 1867, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the 15th and the last shōgun of Tokugawa, tendered his resignation to Emperor Meiji and formally stepped down ten days later, returning governing power to the Emperor, marking the end of the ruling power of the
Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...
. By the next year, Tokugawa Iesato (1863–1940, from Tayasu family) was chosen as the heir to Yoshinobu as the head of Tokugawa clan; on July 7, 1884, Iesato became a prince, just like the heads of some of other notable Japanese noble families, known as Kazoku. ��マ番号2��授公爵 従三位徳川家達 The 1946 Constitution of Japan abolished the ''kazoku'' and the noble titles, making Iesato's son, Iemasa Tokugawa, no longer a prince. Iemasa had a son Iehide, who died young, so he was succeeded by one of his grandsons, Tsunenari. Tsunenari is the second son of Toyoko (eldest daughter of Iemasa) and Ichirō Matsudaira (son of
Tsuneo Matsudaira was a Japanese diplomat of the 20th century. Diplomatic and political career The son of Lord Matsudaira Katamori of Aizu, Tsuneo served as Japanese Ambassador to the United States. In 1929–1935 served as Ambassador to Britain, and in that ...
), and he is also a patrilineal descendant of
Tokugawa Yorifusa , also known as Mito Yorifusa, was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period. Biography Known in his childhood as Tsuruchiyomaru (鶴千代丸), he was the eleventh son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shogun with his concubine, Ka ...
, the youngest son of Tokugawa Ieyasu. In 2007, Tsunenari published a book entitled Edo no idenshi (江戸の遺伝子), released in English in 2009 as The Edo Inheritance, which seeks to counter the common belief among Japanese that the Edo period was like a Dark Age, when Japan, cut off from the world, fell behind. On the contrary, he argues, the roughly 250 years of peace and relative prosperity saw great economic reforms, the growth of a sophisticated urban culture, and the development of the most urbanized society on the planet. Tsunenari also formed the Tokugawa Memorial Foundation in 2003 to preserve and administer the historical objects, art, armor and documents that have been passed down in the Tokugawa family over the generations, display them for the general public and provide assistance to academic research on topics concerning historical Japan.


Simplified descent


Symbol

The Tokugawa's clan symbol, known in Japanese as a " mon", the "triple hollyhock" (although commonly, but mistakenly identified as "hollyhock", the "aoi" actually belongs to the birthwort family and translates as " wild ginger"—''Asarum''), has been a readily recognized icon in Japan, symbolizing in equal parts the Tokugawa clan and the last shogunate. The symbol derives from a mythical clan, the Kamo clan, which legendarily descended from
Yatagarasu Yatagarasu (Yatagarasu, Yata no Karasu) is a mythical crowThe Book of Ancient Matters, The Book of Ancient Matters, Gakken, pp. 130, 138, 139. and a guiding Kami, god in Shinto mythology. During Emperor Jimmu#Migration, Emperor Jimmu's Eastern E ...
. Matsudaira village was located in Higashikamo District, Aichi Prefecture. Although Emperor Go-Yōzei offered a new symbol, Ieyasu continued to use the symbol, which was not related to
Minamoto clan was one of the surnames bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the imperial family who were excluded from the line of succession and demoted into the ranks of the nobility from 1192 to 1333. The practice was most prevalent during th ...
. Ryu Miura
戦国武将・闇に消されたミステリー
''
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
''. via PHP Kenkyusho. 2005. 283.
In ''
jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", they are most often set during the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—'' Portrait of H ...
'', the symbol is often shown to locate the story in the Edo period. And in works set in during the
Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...
movement, the symbol is used to show the bearer's allegiance to the shogunate—as opposed to the royalists, whose cause is symbolized by the Imperial throne's chrysanthemum symbol. Compare with the red and white rose iconography of English
Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...
, as imagined by
Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...
earlier in the 19th century, in '' Anne of Geierstein'' (1829).


Family members

*
Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...
* Tokugawa Hidetada *
Matsudaira Nobuyasu was the eldest son of Matsudaira Ieyasu. His ''tsūshō'' ("common name") was . He was called also , because he had become the lord of in 1570. Because he was a son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, he is often referred to, retroactively, as . Biography No ...
*
Kamehime Kamehime (, 27 July 1560 – 1 August 1625) was a Japanese woman from the Sengoku period. She was the eldest daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu with his first wife, Lady Tsukiyama. She married Okudaira Nobumasa. The marriage was arranged as a reward fo ...
*
Yūki Hideyasu was a Japanese samurai who lived during the Azuchi–Momoyama and early Edo periods. He was the ''daimyō'' of Fukui Domain in Echizen. Early life Hideyasu was born as in 1574, the second son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, by Lady Oman (also known as L ...
* Matsudaira Ietada *
Matsudaira Tadaaki was a Japanese samurai of the Azuchi-Momoyama Period through early Edo period. He was a retainer and relative of the Tokugawa clan.Hauser, William B. (1974)''Economic Institutional Change in Tokugawa Japan: Ōsaka and the Kinai cotton trade,'' p ...
*
Matsudaira Tadanao was a Sengoku to early Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 2nd ''daimyō'' of Fukui Domain in Echizen Province. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Matsudaira Tadanao"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 617] Biography Tadanao was born in Settsu P ...
* Tokuhime (Tokugawa), Tokuhime * Tokugawa Komatsu * Tokugawa Iemitsu *
Senhime (May 26, 1597 – March 11,February 6 in the old calendar 1666), or Lady Sen, was the eldest daughter of the '' shōgun'' Tokugawa Hidetada and later the wife of Toyotomi Hideyori. She was remarried to Honda Tadatoki after the death of her fir ...
*
Tokugawa Mitsukuni , also known as , was a Japanese daimyo who was known for his influence in the politics of the early Edo period. He was the third son of Tokugawa Yorifusa (who in turn was the eleventh son of Tokugawa Ieyasu) and succeeded him, becoming the sec ...
* Tokugawa Iesada * Tsunenari Tokugawa * Muneyoshi Tokugawa * Genji Tokugawa * Yoshitomo Tokugawa


Retainers


Clans

* Abe clan of Mikawa Province *
Gosankyō The were three branches of the Tokugawa clan of Japan. They were descended from the eighth of the fifteen Tokugawa shōguns, Yoshimune (1684–1751). Yoshimune established the ''Gosankyo'' to augment (or perhaps to replace) the ''Gosanke'' ...
* Honda clan *
Ii clan is a Japanese clan which originates in Tōtōmi Province. It was a retainer clan of the Imagawa family, and then switched sides to the Matsudaira clan of Mikawa Province at the reign of Ii Naotora. A famed 16th-century clan member, Ii Naom ...
* Ishikawa clan * Ōkubo clan * Sakai clan *


Important retainers

* Abe Masakatsu *
Akaza Naoyasu was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Azuchi–Momoyama period, who served Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He was also known as and , and held the title of . Biography His father, , was a retainer of Oda Nobunaga. Naonori was killed in action when Akechi Mi ...
* Amano Yasukage * Ando Naotsugu * Ando Shigenobu * Aoyama Tadanari * Ariyama Toyouji *
Asano Nagaakira was a Japanese samurai of the early Edo period who served as ''daimyō'' of Wakayama Domain, and was later transferred to the Hiroshima Domain. Biography Born Asano Iwamatsu, he was the son of Asano Nagamasa, who was a senior retainer of Toyo ...
* Baba Nobushige *
Fukushima Masanori was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the late Sengoku period to early Edo period who served as lord of the Hiroshima Domain. A retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he fought in the Battle of Shizugatake in 1583, and soon became known as one of Seven Spear ...
* Fukushima Masayori * Furuta Shigekatsu * Hattori Hanzō * Hattori Masanari * Hiraiwa Chikayoshi * Hirose Kagefusa * Hisamatsu Sadakatsu * Honda Hirotaka *
Honda Masanobu was a commander and ''daimyō'' in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu in Japan during the Azuchi-Momoyama and Edo periods. In 1563, when an uprising against Ieyasu occurred in Mikawa Province, Masanobu took the side of the peasants against Ieyasu ...
*
Honda Masazumi (1566 – April 5, 1637) was a Japanese samurai of the Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period, who served the Tokugawa clan. He later became a ''daimyō'', and one of the first rōjū of the Tokugawa shogunate. Masazumi was born in 156 ...
*
Honda Narishige (1571 – July 25, 1647) was a Japanese samurai of the late Sengoku period through early Edo period, who served the Tokugawa clan; he later became a ''daimyō''. Narishige was born at Hamamatsu Castle, the son of Tokugawa retainer Honda Shig ...
* Honda Shigetsugu *
Honda Tadakatsu , also called Honda Heihachirō (本多 平八郎) was a Japanese samurai, general and daimyo of the late Sengoku through early Edo periods, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu. Honda Tadakatsu was one of the Tokugawa Four Heavenly Kings along with Ii ...
* Honda Tadamasa * Honda Tadatoki * Honda Tadatsugu * Honda Tadazumi * Honda Yasutoshi (1569–1621) * Honda Yasutoshi (1693–1747) * Hoshina Masamitsu * Hoshina Masanao * Hoshina Masatoshi * Ii Naotora *
Ii Naomasa was a general under the Sengoku period ''daimyō'', and later ''shōgun'', Tokugawa Ieyasu.Ii Naotaka * Ii Naotsugu *
Ina Tadatsugu was a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku period and Edo period.Edmund Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Ina" at ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 15 retrieved 2013-4-1 ...
*
Ishikawa Kazumasa was a Japanese notable retainer under Tokugawa Ieyasu, who served him since childhood, when they were both hostages under the Imagawa in 1551. Biography Kazumasa, also accompanied Ieyasu in the Siege of Terabe 1558, and later at Siege of Mar ...
* Ishin Sūden *
Kikkawa Hiroie (December 7, 1561 – October 22, 1626) was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period. Hiroie's father was Kikkawa Motoharu and his mother was a daughter of Kumagai Nobunao. Biography He initially w ...
* Kobayakawa Hideaki *
Kōriki Kiyonaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' during the Azuchi–Momoyama and Edo periods. A native of Mikawa Province, Kiyonaga served the Tokugawa clan during its battles, until 1600. he was one of Ieyasu's "three magistrates" (san-bugyō). Biography Born i ...
* Kutsuki Mototsuna * Mizuno Nobumoto * Naitō Ienaga * Naitō Nobunari * Natsume Yoshinobu * Ogasawara Ujisuke * Ogawa Suketada *
Ōkubo Tadayo was a samurai general in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Azuchi–Momoyama period, subsequently becoming a ''Daimyō'' of Odawara Domain in early Edo period, Japan. Biography Ōkubo Tadayo was the eldest son of Ōkubo Tadakazu, a her ...
*
Ōkubo Tadasuke was a Japanese '' daimyō'' of the Sengoku period and early Edo period. He was the head of Numazu Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan located in Suruga Province. It was centered on Numazu Castle in ...
* Ōkubo Tadachika *
Ōkubo Nagayasu was a Japanese samurai bureaucrat and ''daimyō'' of the Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging ...
*
Okudaira Sadamasa called Okudaira Sadamasa (奥平 貞昌), was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku and early Edo periods. Nobumasa's family considered their origins to have been associated with Mikawa Province. The clan was descended through the Akamatsu ...
*
Sakai Tadatsugu was one of the most favored and most successful military commanders serving Tokugawa Ieyasu in the late-Sengoku period. He is regarded as one of the Four Guardians of the Tokugawa (''Tokugawa-Shitennō''). along with Honda Tadakatsu, Ii Nao ...
*
Sakakibara Yasumasa was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the late Sengoku period through early Edo period, who served the Tokugawa clan. As one of the Tokugawa family's foremost military commanders, he was considered one of its Shitennō (Tokugawa clan), "Four Guardian K ...
* Suganuma Sadamitsu * Torii Tadayoshi *
Torii Mototada was a Japanese Samurai and Daimyo of the Sengoku period through late Azuchi–Momoyama period, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu. Torii died at the siege of Fushimi where his garrison was greatly outnumbered and destroyed by the army of Ishida Mitsu ...
* Uemura Masakatsu * Wakisaka Yasuharu *
Watanabe Moritsuna (1542–1620) was a Japanese samurai of the Watanabe clan, who served the Tokugawa clan. Born in Mikawa Province. He joined Ieyasu in 1557 and fought in such famous battles as the Battles of Anegawa (1570), Mikatagahara (1573) and Nagas ...


References


External links


Tokugawa memorial foundation
{{Authority control Japanese clans