(1596-1662) was a Japanese
daimyois a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in premodern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
of the early
Edo periodThe , or , is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868 and is the premodern era. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period ended with the Meiji Restoration, the...
, who ruled the
Kawagoe DomainThe was a feudal domain of Japan during the Momoyama and Edo periods of the history of Japan. It was located in Iruma District, now part of Saitama Prefecture, in Musashi Province . The domain had its headquarters at Kawagoe Castle in the present-day city of Kawagoe.The domain had its beginning in...
. First serving
Tokugawa IemitsuTokugawa Iemitsu was the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Iemitsu ruled from 1623 to 1651.-Early life :...
as a
page-The medieval page:In medieval times, a page was an attendant to a knight; an apprentice squire. A young boy served as a page for seven years, serving, cleaning, and even learning the basics of combat. The lord he was working for would usually treat him fairly. The lord sometimes gave the page...
, Nobutsuna was renowned for his sagacity. He was named a
rōjūThe ', usually translated as Elder, was one of the highest-ranking government posts in Tokugawa Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council as a whole; under the first two shoguns, there were only two Rōjū...
in 1633. Nobutsuna led the shogunal forces to their final victory over the rebellion at
ShimabaraThe was an uprising largely involving Japanese peasants, most of them Catholic Christians, in 1637–1638 during the Edo period. It was also one of only a handful of instances of serious unrest during the relatively peaceful period of the Tokugawa shogunate's rule...
. His court title was
Izu no Kami, which was the origin of his nickname, "Izu the Wise" (
Chie Izu 知恵伊豆).
Nobutsuna was born in 1596, the son of Ōkōchi Hisatsuna, a senior retainer of
Tokugawa Ieyasu
.
(1596-1662) was a Japanese
daimyois a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in premodern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
of the early
Edo periodThe , or , is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868 and is the premodern era. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period ended with the Meiji Restoration, the...
, who ruled the
Kawagoe DomainThe was a feudal domain of Japan during the Momoyama and Edo periods of the history of Japan. It was located in Iruma District, now part of Saitama Prefecture, in Musashi Province . The domain had its headquarters at Kawagoe Castle in the present-day city of Kawagoe.The domain had its beginning in...
. First serving
Tokugawa IemitsuTokugawa Iemitsu was the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Iemitsu ruled from 1623 to 1651.-Early life :...
as a
page-The medieval page:In medieval times, a page was an attendant to a knight; an apprentice squire. A young boy served as a page for seven years, serving, cleaning, and even learning the basics of combat. The lord he was working for would usually treat him fairly. The lord sometimes gave the page...
, Nobutsuna was renowned for his sagacity. He was named a
rōjūThe ', usually translated as Elder, was one of the highest-ranking government posts in Tokugawa Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council as a whole; under the first two shoguns, there were only two Rōjū...
in 1633. Nobutsuna led the shogunal forces to their final victory over the rebellion at
ShimabaraThe was an uprising largely involving Japanese peasants, most of them Catholic Christians, in 1637–1638 during the Edo period. It was also one of only a handful of instances of serious unrest during the relatively peaceful period of the Tokugawa shogunate's rule...
. His court title was
Izu no Kami, which was the origin of his nickname, "Izu the Wise" (
Chie Izu 知恵伊豆).
Biography
Nobutsuna was born in 1596, the son of Ōkōchi Hisatsuna, a senior retainer of
Tokugawa Ieyasu
. He was adopted as the heir of his uncle, Matsudaira Masatsuna, in 1601. After being introduced to
Hidetadawas 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.-Early Life :...
and Ieyasu, he was appointed as page to Ieyasu's grandson
IemitsuTokugawa Iemitsu was the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Iemitsu ruled from 1623 to 1651.-Early life :...
. 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
hatamotoA was a 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. However, in the Edo period, hatamoto were the upper vassals of the Tokugawa...
; he later became a daimyo. In 1623, he received the court title of
Izu no Kami. He became daimyo in 1633, receiving the
Oshi DomainThe ' was a Japanese domain of the Edo period, located in Musashi Province. It was headquartered in Oshi Castle.-List of Daimyo:* Matsudaira clan # Ietada* Matsudaira clan # Tadayoshi...
as his fief.
After the failure of
Itakura Shigemasa' was a Japanese daimyo of the early Edo period. The lord of Fukōzu han in Mikawa Province, he was a personal aide to Tokugawa Ieyasu...
to subdue the rebellion at
ShimabaraThe was an uprising largely involving Japanese peasants, most of them Catholic Christians, in 1637–1638 during the Edo period. It was also one of only a handful of instances of serious unrest during the relatively peaceful period of the Tokugawa shogunate's rule...
in 1637-38, Nobutsuna took command of the allied armies laying siege to
Hara Castleis a castle in Hizen Province. During the Shimabara Rebellion , the rebellious peasants were besieged there.As a result of the Shimabara Rebellion in 1637, the Shogunate decided to expel the Portuguese from Japan...
, bringing the campaign to a successful conclusion.
In his later years, he joined senior Tokugawa officials such as Hoshina Masayuki in supporting the underaged 4th shogun,
Ietsunawas the fourth shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan who was in office from 1651 to 1680. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, thus making him the grandson of Tokugawa Hidetada and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu.-Early Life :...
.
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Further reading
- Morris, Ivan (1975). The nobility of failure: tragic heroes in the history of Japan. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.