was a Japanese ''

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 nominall ...

'' of the early

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 character ...

, who ruled the

Kawagoe Domain Kawagoe Castle daimyō residence, administrative headquarters of Kawagoe Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It is located in Musashi Province, Honshū. The domain was centered at Kawagoe Castle, locate ...

. First serving

Tokugawa Iemitsu Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光, August 12, 1604 – June 8, 1651) was the third '' shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, w ...

as a

page Page most commonly refers to: * Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to: Roles * Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation * Page (servant), traditionally a young m ...

, Nobutsuna was renowned for his sagacity. He was named a

rōjū The , usually translated as ''Elder'', was one of the highest-ranking government posts under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council of Elders as a whole; under the first two ''shō ...

in 1633. Nobutsuna led the shogunal forces to their final victory over the rebellion at Shimabara. His court title was '' Izu no Kami'', which was the origin of his nickname, .

Biography

Nobutsuna was born in 1596, the son of Ōkōchi Hisatsuna, a senior retainer of

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 ...

. He was adopted as the heir of his uncle, Matsudaira Masatsuna, in 1601. After being introduced to

Hidetada was the second ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was bo ...

and Ieyasu, he was appointed as page to Ieyasu's grandson

Iemitsu Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光, August 12, 1604 – June 8, 1651) was the third '' shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, w ...

. He was greatly admired by Iemitsu, and renowned within the Tokugawa administration for his sagacity. In the early years of his service, he was a

hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as '' gokenin.'' Howev ...

; he later became a daimyo. In 1623, he received the court title of '' Izu no Kami''. He became daimyo in 1633, receiving the

Oshi Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Musashi Province (modern-day Saitama Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Oshi Castle in what is now part of the city of Gyōda, Saitama. History Oshi Castle wa ...

as his fief. After the failure of

Itakura Shigemasa was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period. The lord of Fukōzu han in Mikawa Province, he was a personal aide to Tokugawa Ieyasu. Son of the Kyoto Shoshidai Itakura Katsushige, and younger brother of Itakura Shigemune (successor to K ...

to subdue the rebellion at Shimabara in 1637–38, Nobutsuna took command of the allied armies laying siege to

Hara Castle was a Japanese castle in Hizen Province (today in Minamishimabara, Nagasaki). During the Shimabara Rebellion The , also known as the or , was an uprising that occurred in the Shimabara Domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan from 17 ...

, bringing the campaign to a successful conclusion. In his later years, he joined senior Tokugawa officials such as

Hoshina Masayuki was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period, who was the founder of what became the Matsudaira house of Aizu. He was an important figure in the politics and philosophy of the early Tokugawa shogunate. Biography Hoshina Masayuki was born ...

in supporting the underaged 4th shōgun, Ietsuna.

In popular culture

Nobutsuna is portrayed as one of the two main villains in the manga series ''Shin Kozure Okami (New

Lone Wolf and Cub is a Japanese manga series created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. First published in 1970, the story was adapted into six films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, four plays, a television series starring Kinnosuke Yorozuya, and i ...

).'' His physical appearance in the manga is drawn to make him appear extremely ugly, and even Shōgun Ietsuna calls him "as ugly as a toad". He is determined to destroy the Satsuma clan partly because he fears that Satsuma will one day become so powerful that it will rise up against the Shogunate but also so that Satsuma's vast wealth will fall into the Shogunate coffers. To that end, he is willing to use any means no matter how despicable, even faking his own death and deliberately disfiguring himself physically in order to impersonate a powerful Satsuma nobleman.

References

*Harbottle, Thomas Benfield (1904). ''Dictionary of Battles from the Earliest Date to the Present Time''. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Ltd.

Biography

In popular culture

References

Further reading