Tokugawa Iemitsu
shogun of Japan
Last Updated: Jun 4, 2019 See Article History
Tokugawa Iemitsu, (born Aug. 12, 1604, Edo [now Tokyo], Japan—died June 8, 1651, Edo), third Tokugawa shogun in Japan, the one under whom the Tokugawa regime assumed many of the characteristics that marked it for the next two and a half centuries.
Iemitsu became shogun in 1623, when his father, Hidetada, retired in his favour, though Hidetada retained authority until his death in 1632. At the time of Iemitsu's accession, the daimyos, or great feudal lords, no longer threatened Tokugawa power as they had at the beginning of his grandfather's reign. Iemitsu was the first shogun to treat them with disdain. He further strengthened the shogunate by eliminating the few remaining prerogatives of the emperor, whose role was merely symbolic. Finally, Iemitsu established strict administrative criteria by which the government was to be run and promulgated rules for the education and behaviour of the hereditary warriors attached to the Tokugawa house. He even stripped his own brother of his fief and forced him to commit suicide for inappropriate treatment of his vassals.
Iemitsu also carried to completion the anti-Christian policies of his father; he expelled or executed the remaining Christian missionaries in Japan and forced the entire population to register as parishioners of Buddhist temples. In 1638 the rebellion staged by inhabitants of the Shimabara Peninsula was ruthlessly suppressed when he found strong Christian adherents among them. The following year he expelled the Portuguese to prevent the spread of seditious ideas, thus closing his country to all commerce with the outside world except for a limited, strictly regulated trade with Korea and with Dutch and Chinese merchants at the port of Nagasaki—a policy of seclusion that remained unaltered for more than 200 years.
Japan: The establishment of the system
…shoguns, Hidetada and his successor, Iemitsu, the bakufu control policy advanced further until the bakuhan system—the government system of the Tokugawa shogunate; literally a combination of bakufu and han (the domain of a daimyo)—reached its completion. By reorganizations in 1633–42 the executive of the bakufu government was almost completed, as…
Kōami Family
…daughter of the military ruler Tokugawa Iemitsu.…
sankin kōtai
…1635 in Japan by the Tokugawa shogun (hereditary military dictator) Iemitsu by which the great feudal lords (daimyo) had to reside several months each year in the Tokugawa capital at Edo (modern Tokyo). When the lords returned to their fiefs, they were required to leave their wives and families in…
Shogun, (Japanese: "barbarian-quelling generalissimo") in Japanese history, a military ruler. The title was first used during the Heian period, when it was occasionally bestowed on a general after a successful campaign. In 1185 Minamoto Yoritomo gained military control of Japan; seven years later…
Emperors and Empresses Regnant of Japan
Traditionally, the ruler and absolute monarch of Japan was the emperor or empress, even if that person did not have the actual power to govern, and the many de facto leaders of the country throughout history—notably shoguns—always ruled in the name of the monarch. After World War II, with the…
More About Tokugawa Iemitsu
establishment of sankin kōtai
In sankin kōtai
In Japan: The establishment of the system
patronage of Kōami family
In Kōami Family
June 8, 1651 (aged 46)
role in
Shimabara Rebellion
notable family members
father Tokugawa Hidetada
Yamagata Aritomo
Go-Shirakawa
Tsutsumi Yasujiro
Saigō Takamori
Tokugawa Ieyasu
Abe Shinzo
Itō Hirobumi
Minamoto Yoritomo
Go-Daigo
Yamamoto Isoroku
The Samurai Archives - SamuraiWiki - Biography of Tokugawa Iemitsu
Tokugawa Iemitsu - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)