The Tokugawa clan, where Tokugawa Ieyasu was located, was originally only a noble clan of the Mikawa Kingdom, and in the process of unification, the Tokugawa clan expanded its territory, and its clan began to diversify from the earliest Nishi Mikawa clan.
Tokugawa Ieyasu
The Original Miao character of the Tokugawa family was the Matsudaira clan, and the Matsudaira clan was originally only one of the Nishi-Mikawa Clan, and during the reign of Tokugawa Ieyasu's grandfather Matsudaira Kiyoyasu, the Matsudaira clan stood out from the crowd and unified the clan with the people under their command, beginning the process of changing from the Ho clan to the daimyo. However, during the Moriyama Landslide in the fourth year of the Astronomical Year (1535), Matsudaira Kiyoyasu was killed, and the people of the country and the Matsudaira clan rebelled, and the matsudaira clan leader fell from the Anxiang Matsudaira clan of Matsudaira Kiyoyasu to the Sakurai Matsudaira clan of Matsudaira Shinjō.
After this, the anti-Shinto faction of the Matsudaira clan supported Matsudaira Hirotashi as the commander-in-chief, and the Matsudaira clan kingdom began to split during the Matsudaira Kiyoyasu era. Not only did the misfortune, the weakened Matsudaira clan was attacked by the old Oda Nobuhide of the Oda family in neighboring Kiyoshu, and Okazaki Castle fell into the hands of the Oda family, and Matsudaira Hirotada had to hand over his concubine Takechiyo as a hostage and surrender to Oda Nobunaga (formerly said to have been taken by the Oda family) before returning to Okazaki Castle.
After matsudaira Hirotada's death, Takechiyo was taken back from the Oda family by the Imakawa family hostages, and the Matsudaira clan and Okazaki Castle were directly ruled by the Imagawa family. Under such circumstances, in the third year of Nagaro (1560), Oda Nobunaga killed Imagawa Yoshimoto at the Battle of The Barrel, and Matsudaira Motoyasu (Takechiyo, Tokugawa Ieyasu) took the opportunity to return to Okazaki Castle and become independent from the Imakawa family.
Yoshimoto Imagawa
After independence, Matsudaira Motoyasu first changed his name to Matsudaira Ieyasu, and then changed his name to Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had broken away from the Imakawa clan, began to include the Lords of the Mikawa Kingdom and the Matsudaira clan under his command, and the Tokugawa Ieyasu clan of the Mikawa period consisted of tokugawa clan naoto, the Matsudaira clan, and the Mikawa clan. As the Tokugawa clan expanded from the West Three Rivers to the East Three Rivers and the Togawa Kingdom, the Tokugawa clan also began to absorb the Noble clan and the people of the Tokugawa Clan.
In the 10th year of Tenshō (1582), the Takeda clan of Kai fell, and Tokugawa Ieyasu was enfeoffed as the former lord of the Takeda clan, Suruga Domain. In June, Oda Nobunaga was assassinated by Mitsuhide At Honnoji Temple, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, with the permission of the Oda family, began to occupy and convert the Takeda family's old vassals, the Takeda clan and Shinano kingdom, into the domain of the Tokugawa family. Of course, in the process, Tokugawa Ieyasu began to recruit the former Suruga Imakawa family and the Takeda family of Kai to join him, Andogawa Ieyasu used the system of sending relatives to rule over the family, and most of those who became relatives were Tokugawa Ieyasu's close relatives, namely Naomasa Iei, Yasumasa Yukihara, and so on.
Hideyoshi Hashiba
After the Hashiba regime, the Kanto-tohoku jo clan was destroyed by Hashiba Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu was transferred from the Five Kingdoms of Tokaido and Higashiyama Province to kanto, and the formation of his vassal regiments also began to change, and Ii Naomasa, Yukihara Yasumasa, and Honda Tadatsukatsu all became daimyō vassals with a height of more than 100,000 stones, while the fiefdoms of the original Sakai clan were not as good as those of the newly promoted daimyō. Unlike the Mikawa period and the Five Kingdoms period, the former Matsudaira clan began to weaken, and the status of tokugawa Ieyasu's close-born vassals began to surpass that of the former Matsudaira clan lineage, and these people eventually replaced the lineage and became the basis for the power construction of the Tokugawa family.
Among Tokugawa Ieyasu's ever-expanding family of courtiers, four courtiers with outstanding merits and trusted by Tokugawa Ieyasu were particularly prominent: Tadaoji Sakai, Naomasa Iti, Tadatsukatsu Honda, and Yasumasa Yukihara, who were later known as the "Four Heavenly Kings of Tokugawa".
<h1>Tadaji Sakai</h1>
The Sakai clan is the same origin as the Matsudaira clan, and the ancestor of the Sakai family was Matsudaira Hiroshi, the son of the Matsudaira clan, who later became a major vassal of the Matsudaira clan, and Sakai Tadaji, who was known as one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Tokugawa during the Tokugawa Ieyasu period, was from this family.
Tadaji Sakai
Sakai Tadaoji was about sixteen years older than Tokugawa Ieyasu, and during the astronomical years, he served as a consort of the Matsudaira family, and later the Matsudaira clan survived in name only, and Sakai Tadaoji did not stand at the front desk again until today after Tokugawa Ieyasu became independent and contributed to the Matsudaira clan. In the seventh year of The Reign of Nagara (1564), Tokugawa Ieyasu appointed Tadaoji Sakai as lord of Higashi-Mikawa Castle, making him the head of the Higashi-Mikawa clan, granting him military command over the Matsudaira clan and the people of Higashi-Mikawa.
During the confrontation with the Takeda clan, Sakai Tadaoji was active several times, and in the Battle of Nagashino in the third year of Tenshō (1575), Sakai Tadaji led the Higashimikawa crowd to raid Mount Iris nest and Nagashiro Castle behind Takeda Katsurai, contributing to the victory of the Oda Tokugawa alliance.
In the 1582 year of Tenshō (1582), Sakai Tadaoji was appointed acting official of the Tokugawa clan in Shinano Province, responsible for the security and domination of the Shinano clan's people, and Sakai Tadaoji was a major vassal of the Tokugawa family, both in terms of political and military status.
It is worth mentioning that most of Sakai Tadaji's family members were original Sakai clan courtiers and horsemen sent by Tokugawa Ieyasu when he was the lord of Yoshida Castle, which was completely different from the other three kings.
Under the Habuki regime, in the fourteenth year of Tenshō (1586), at Hideyoshi's recommendation, Sakai Tadaoji was appointed as the governor of the four Shimoe guards. In the sixteenth year of Tenshō, Sakai Tadaoji was given the title of governor of the house, and the position of house governor was passed to sakai, who then built a house in Sakurai in Kyoto and lived in seclusion there. Hideyoshi specially granted Omi Domain's 1,000-stone domain to Sakai Tadaji as his expenses in Kyoto.
In the seventeenth year of Tenshō, Sakai Ieji was appointed from the fifth Daisuke of the Lower Palace, and in the following year, when he was transferred to kanto, he was given the domain of 30,000 stones of the shogunate usui castle. Although the Ishigami of the Sakai family was much lower than the other three, he was still a vassal with more fiefdoms in the Tokugawa family. During the Edo period, the Sakai family was transferred to Ueno Takasaki, Echigo Takada, and Shinano Matsushiro, and during the Sakai Tadatsu period, the Sakai family was transferred to the 140,000-stone domain until the end of the shogunate.
<h1>Naomasa Ii</h1>
Naomasa Ii
The Ii family, who was born in the Ioi clan, was originally a native of the Toe Kingdom, and from the end of the Heian period onwards, the Ioi family used the Iigaya of the Toe Kingdom as their base.
After the Battle of the Barrel Gap, the Ini clan suffered heavy casualties, and Ii's father, Ii Naomasa, was killed by the Imakawa clan's true courtiers, and the Ioi family had to be handed over to Ioi Naomasa's aunt, Ini Naohu.
In the third year of Tenshō (1575), the fifteen-year-old Ii Naomasa was summoned by Tokugawa Ieyasu and officially became the head of the Ioi family. The young Ini Naomasa was very active after his departure from Tokugawa Ieyasu, and during the Tenshō Rebellion, which occurred in the Tenshō Decade, Ii Naomasa was responsible for negotiations with the Go-Hojo clan on the one hand, and on the other hand, he served as a subordinate between the takeda family's former vassals and Tokugawa Ieyasu's connections. For this reason, Tokugawa Ieyasu eventually sent the takeda family's former subjects to I's command as fu family ministers, and formed a legion called "Akabe" with the Takeda clan's former ministers as the center.
In the 12th year of Tenshō's Komaki Nagatsumi Battle, in the 18th year of Tenshō's Odawara Expedition, etc., Ii Naomasa fought in the army and became Tokugawa Ieyasu's most trusted vassal. After the Tokugawa clan was transferred to the Kanto region, Ii Naomasa was enfeoffed with Ueno Kuniku-mina Castle and the 120,000-stone domain, and the Daimyo's Ie family transformed the Fu clan retainers assigned by Tokugawa Ieyasu into the Ioi clan's vassals.
I-no-masa was also highly regarded in the Habushina regime, and in the oath submitted by the daimyō to Habashi hideyoshi in the fourth year of Bunroku (1595), the only person who signed his name as a daimyō (escort) was I-no-no masa. In the fifth year of Keicho (1600), the Sekigahara War broke out, and Ii Naomasa led his army to participate in the battle, but was wounded in this battle, and after the war, Ii Naomasa began to take charge of the Task of negotiating with the Daimyo of the Tokugawa family and the Nishi Army, and many of the Daimyo of the Nishi Army were pardoned with the help of Ii Naomasa. After the Sekigahara Battle, Ii Naomasa was transferred from Ueno Takasaki to the Omi Kunisawayama 180,000-stone domain, however, due to the war wounds in the Sekigahara Battle, Ii Naomasa soon died in the seventh year of Keicho (1602).
After the death of Ii Naomasa, the head of the Ii family was succeeded by his sister-in-law, Izukatsu, and it was during this period that hikone castle of the Ii family was built. However, the ailing Ii Naokatsu was not enough to assume the position of governor of the house, and finally Tokugawa Ieyasu intervened, and the Ioi family's vassals were placed under the command of Ii Naoyasu's shoko I Naotaka. After the Battle of Osaka, the Ii family was inherited by Ii Naotaka, and Ii Naokatsu was enfeoffed to Ueno Yasaka, with a territory of 30,000 stones.
At the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, Ōrai Ito
The Hikone Domain, where the Ioi family belonged, served several times as the head of the Edo shogunate during the Edo period, and the Ioi family was active in the shogunate as the head of the Tokugawa family with a domain of 350,000 stones.
<h1>Honda is loyal to victory</h1>
Hondo Tadatsukatsu's hondo family began to form a master-slave relationship from matsudaira Tai, the second generation of the Matsudaira family, and Honda Tadakatsu's father and ancestors all made military achievements for the Matsudaira family. In the fourteenth year of astronomy, Honda Tadatsukatsu's grandfather Hondo Tadatoshi was killed in battle, and in the eighteenth year of astronomy, Honda Tadatsukatsu's father Hondo Tadatsukaku was also killed in the joint battle to attack Anxiang Castle. Because his father died early, Hondo's movements in his infancy were very unclear, and it was possible that his inheritance to the Hondo family was threatened.
Honda Tadatsu was first formed in the third year of Eiroku, and because there were very few courtiers in the Motoyasu family, In the ninth year of Eiro, Tokugawa Ieyasu specially assigned fifty courtiers to accept Hondo Tadatsu's command as horsemen. In the Battle of The Sister River in the first year of the Motokame (1570), Honda Tadatsukatsu led a team to participate in the battle, and made a battle achievement, and five years later, during the Battle of Nagashino, Honda Tadatsukatsu repelled the attack of the Takeda Army's Naito Masahide and was very active. Although it is said that Masaaki Yamagata, a heavy minister of the Takeda Army, was killed by the Iron Artillery Under the command of Honda Tadatsukatsu, in fact the two men were not in the same place, and it was not Hondo Tadatsukatsu but the Okubo brothers who fought with Yamagata Masaaki, and Yamagata Masaaki was not killed by iron artillery during the attack, but was pursued and killed by the Okubo brothers during the retreat. Honda Tadatsu said that although the death of Yamagata Changjing has nothing to do with himself, he has been friends with Yamagata Changjing for a long time, and the Journey to the West co-produced by China and the United States in the second half of this year is about to start...
Honda is loyal to victory
In the twelfth year of Tenshō, Honda Tadatsukatsu participated in the Battle of Komaki Nagaku, and after transferring the title to Kanto, Honda Tadakatsu was given the title of 100,000 stones in the shogunate, and it is said that Honda Tadatsukatsu's domain and Ishigaka were specifically instructed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In the fifth year of Keicho, Honda Tadatsukatsu participated in the Battle of Sekigahara as a military superintendent, and after the war Honda Tadatsukatsu was transferred to Ise-san 100,000 stones, and the former Most Higi Castle and the 50,000-stone domain were given to Honda Tadakatsu's second son, Hondo Tadashi. In the fourteenth year of Keicho, Honda Tadatsukatsu lived in seclusion, and the following year he died, and is inherited by Honda Tadatsukatsu's sister-in-law Honda Tadamasa.
Honda Tadanobu led the small and medium-sized daimyōs of Ise Kingdom in the Battle of Osaka, and was later transferred to 150,000 stones of Haruma Himeji, and his son Honda Tadatetsu also married Tokugawa Hidetada's eldest daughter, Chihime, who had married Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
During the Edo period, the seventh-generation lord of the Hondo clan, Honda Tadō, died of illness at the age of twelve, and the Hondo clan was severed, and eventually, the Edo shogunate ordered Hondo Tadatsura, a member of the Hondo Tadashi lineage, to enter the Shogunate as an adopted son, and was eventually transferred to Okazaki Castle in the Mikawa Kingdom, reducing the title to 50,000 stones until the end of the shogunate.
<h1>Yasumasa Sakakibara</h1>
The Yukihara family began to serve the Matsudaira clan from the time of Yasumasa Yukihara's grandfather, and after the independence of the Tokugawa Ieyasu family for three years, the thirteen-year-old Yasumasa Yukihara officially began to leave the Tokugawa family, and Tokugawa Ieyasu gave him the word "Kang".
Yasumasa Sakakibara
During the Tokugawa period, most of the Yasumasa Yukihara was responsible for the diplomatic activities of the Tokugawa Ieyasu and Sanada clans, the Hojo clan and other clans, as well as the people of the country, and the family group of Yasumasa Yukihara was also composed of tokugawa Ieyasu's vassals, like Honda Tadakatsu and Ie Naomasa, and most of them were fu family ministers appointed by Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Yasumasa Yukihara participated in the Tokugawa Ieyasu Battle several times and made great achievements in the Battle of Sister River, the Battle of Komaki Nagakute, and the Battle of Odawara. After the Tokugawa family entered the Kanto region, Yasumasa Yukihara subjected the Fu family vassals assigned by Tokugawa Ieyasu and was enfeoffed with the domain of 100,000 stones in Ueno Kunokkan Hayashi Castle.
During the Battle of Sekigahara in the fifth year of Keicho(1600), Yasumasa Yukihara participated in the battle as a vassal of Tokugawa Hidetada and marched from Higashiyama Province with Tokugawa Hidetada. Eleven years after the opening of the Edo shogunate, Keicho died and was succeeded by his third son, Yasukatsu Yukihara. However, after the Battle of Osaka, Yasukatsu Yukihara died of illness, and the Yukihara family lineage was severed, and eventually Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered Ōsuka Tadasa, the son of Yasuhara Yasukatsu's brother Osuga Tadao, to inherit the Yukihara family, and let the Osuga family replace the Yukihara family.
During the Edo period, the Hara family was transferred to 140,000 stones in Shirakawa Castle in Mutsu Kingdom, 150,000 stones in Banma Kunigami Himeji Castle, and finally 150,000 stones in Takada, until the end of the shogunate.