During the Japanese shogunate era, the emperor lost power. However, it still exists as a symbol. Although the shoguns toyed with the imperial court in their hands, they still wanted to stand on their feet and did not want to replace them.
They even have to make gestures to make the people of the world feel that their rule is authorized by the emperor and has come to be extremely legitimate. One of the methods is the combination of public and military forces.
Public, public, royal and hereditary secretaries.
Samurai, samurai, shogunate and its daimyō.
The combination of public and military forces, which is obviously a political marriage, was most prominent in the Edo shogunate era.
Today we will talk about political marriage, is there love? Is it the people of the royal family who are a little more generous, or the samurai who are a little more generous.
Two examples.
One is Tokugawa Kazuko.
She was the daughter of the second-generation shogun Tokugawa Hidetada. After Emperor Masahito took the throne, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the shogunate who was controlling it in the background, said that he would send the 5-year-old Kazuhime to the palace.
(Stills from ancient Japan)
Didn't the imperial court know that he wanted to use Heji to nail the "clear pile" to the royal family? But they did not dare to resist, and after various discussions and delays, they finally agreed to enter the palace with Ji two years later.
However, later, due to the war, the death of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the death of Emperor Go-yō, especially the birth of a son and a daughter between Emperor Go-Mizuo and his concubine, caused Tokugawa Hidetada and his main chamber Ae and Fury... He Ji's entry into the palace did not go well.
It was not until 1620, as the imperial court's finances dried up more and more, that he finally welcomed Heji into the palace.
Entering the palace, Kazuhime changed her name to Kazuko and brought hundreds of boxes of dowries.
In view of the shogunate's constant interference in the affairs of the imperial court, and even taking the opportunity to send many samurai to monitor it, Emperor Go-Mizuo could actually treat Kazuko coldly and not let her sleep. After all, no matter how powerful your shogunate is, you can't always stay outside my bedroom door, right?
However, perhaps the Confucian education received by the imperial family from childhood always failed to beat a sister with a water spirit into the cold palace, so Emperor Go-Mizuo was fortunate to have favored Kazuko, and in more than ten years, he gave birth to three daughters and two sons. It can be said that she just gave birth to a baby and became pregnant.
However, their children could not escape the curse of the high mortality rate of the imperial family and the descendants of the Tokugawa clan at that time, and not many of them grew up to be adults.
Later, Emperor Go-Mizuo was not pleased with the shogunate's interference and passed the throne to Prince Yukiko without warning. That is, Emperor Myeongshō.
Although the abdication of the throne was a vengeance and did not communicate with the shogunate, Emperor Akimasa had the blood of the Tokugawa clan, and the shogunate should be satisfied, right?
After that, Masahito and Kazuko both became monks. A few years later, the two had two more daughters.
It can be said that although it is a political marriage, although this marriage is completely used to bind the imperial court, the son who married into the royal family has corrected his identity and is more intimate with the husband's side. And Zheng Ren also fulfilled her husband's responsibilities and did not treat her badly.
In stark contrast, Kazuko's brother Tokugawa Iemitsu married Takako Takako Takako.
Kazuko married into a samurai family, and Filial Piety married into a samurai family. His father was the imperial court Guan Bai, the same official that Toyotomi Hideyoshi had done, The Eagle Division Shinbo, and his status was extremely high.
Perhaps, when she learned of this marriage, she did not hold out much hope, but she would not have thought that her fate would be so tragic.
When Tokugawa Iemitsu was young, she was quite a man, so as soon as she married, she remained a widow.
Tokugawa Iemitsu's grandmother, Kasuga Bureau, in order to allow the shogun to have an heir, broke her heart and chose many beautiful girls who looked as beautiful as teenagers to send them to the shogun, and sure enough, she successfully transformed him.
In his thirties, Jiaguang began to have children, and soon, he had a bunch of children. Even the dowry of the filial piety had the honor of looking up to Tianlu.
However, only Takako, who had no intersection with General Tokugawa, had no intersection at all.
She entered the Great Olympics in 1624, when she was 22 years old, and by the time she died at the age of 72, she had been widowed for a full 50 years.
After her, the imperial and public servant daughters who married into the Tokugawa shogun Daio continued the fate of being less favored. The Tokugawa clan deliberately refused to allow them to have children, and did not want the shoguns to be mixed with the blood of the imperial court.
Speaking of which, Emperor Go-Mizuo was at least more responsible for women than Tokugawa Iemitsu.