Tokugawa Hidetada

Tokugawa Hidetada (徳川秀忠, Tokugawa Hidetada, 1579-1632) was the second shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate. He reigned between 1605 and 1623, during the beginning of the Edo era in Japan. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, whom he succeeded.

Tokugawa Hidetada Biography

His father Ieyasu, after taking control of Japan in 1600 from the rival Toyotomi clan and two years after establishing the shogunate in Edo in 1603, gave up the title of seii taishogun to Hidetada in 1605.

By establishing a precedent of dynastic succession, in the same way as the Minamoto and Ashikaga clans, Ieyasu proclaimed and justified the supremacy of his shogunate. Despite giving up his title, Ieyasu kept the reins of power under the name of ogosho (or "cloistered shogun") until his death in 1616.

As shogun, Hidetada took part in the siege of Ōsaka in the winter of 1614 and again in the summer of 1615, where he defeated the last rival clan, the Toyotomi.

His daughter Sen, who had married Toyotomi Hideyori, was spared. Later, in 1615, the shogunate established the laws governing the samurai (the buke shohatto laws) and the imperial court (the kuge shohatto laws).

Hidetada passed his title of shogun in 1623 to his son, Tokugawa Iemitsu, however, he kept the power as ogosho, as his father Ieyasu had done, until his death in 1632.

Tokugawa Hidetada Children

In 1595, he married Oeyo, the third daughter of Azai Nagamasa, they had several children:

• Sen (1597-1666), married first Toyotomi Hideyori in 1603, then in 1616 Honda Tadatoki ;
• Tama (1599-1622), married to Maeda Toshitsune;
• Katsu (1601-1672), married to his cousin, Matsudaira Tadanao;
• Hatsu (1602-1630), adopted by Hatsu, Hidetada's sister-in-law and married to Kyōgoku Tadataka ;
• Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-1651), Hidetada's successor;
• Tokugawa Tadanaga (1606-1633), second son of Hidetada;
• Tokugawa Masako (1607-1678), also called Kazu-ko, married to Emperor Go-Mizunoo, mother of Empress Meishō.

Tokugawa Hidetada Posterity

Tokugawa Hidetada appears in the manga Samurai Deeper Kyo as one of the main characters, nicknamed "Red Tiger".

He also appears in the manga Gou - Himetachi no Sengoku, centered on the life of his wife Oeyo.