Tokugawa Ietsuna (徳川 家綱, 1641-1680) was 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. Events The Long Parliament passes a series of legislation designed to contain Charles Is absolutist tendencies. ... Events First Portuguese governor was appointed to Macau The Swedish city Karlskrona was founded as the Royal Swedish Navy relocated there. ... In Japanese history, a shōgun (将軍) was the practical ruler of Japan for most of the time from 1192 to the Meiji Era beginning in 1868. ... The Tokugawa shogunate or Tokugawa bakufu (徳川幕府) (also known as the Edo bakufu) was a feudal military dictatorship of Japan established in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family until 1868. ... // Events January 1 - Charles II crowned King of Scotland in Scone. ... Events First Portuguese governor was appointed to Macau The Swedish city Karlskrona was founded as the Royal Swedish Navy relocated there. ... Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu Tokugawa Iemitsu (previously spelled Iyemitsu);(1604 - 1651) was the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty who reigned from 1623 to 1651. ... Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada Tokugawa Hidetada (徳川 秀忠 (1579-1632) was the second shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. ... Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (previously spelled Iyeyasu); 徳川 家康 (January 31, 1543 – June 1, 1616) was the founder of the Tokugawa bakufu of Japan which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the restoration of the monarchy in 1868. ...

Early Life (1639-1651)

Tokugawa Ietsuna was born in 1641, the eldest son of Tokugawa Iemitsu and a concubine. At that time, his father was shogun in his own right, and several anti-Christian measures had been taken after the disastrous Shimabara Rebellion of 1637. Ietsuna was thus born into a very hostile enviornment. Tokugawa Ietsuna was a very weak and frail child, and this frail health carried over into his later years, from which he never recovered. Ietsuna grew up in Edo. Apart from this information, nothing else is known about his early life. Events The Long Parliament passes a series of legislation designed to contain Charles Is absolutist tendencies. ... Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu Tokugawa Iemitsu (previously spelled Iyemitsu);(1604 - 1651) was the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty who reigned from 1623 to 1651. ... Ruins of the Hara fortress The Shimabara Rebellion (ja: 島原の乱, shimabara no ran) was an uprising of Japanese peasants, many of them Christians, during the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1637-1638. ... Events February 3 - Tulipmania collapses in Netherlands by government order February 15 - Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor December 17 - Shimabara Rebellion erupts in Japan Pierre de Fermat makes a marginal claim to have proof of what would become known as Fermats last theorem. ... Edo (Japanese: 江戸, literally: bay-door, estuary), once also spelled Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo. ...

The Regency of Shogun Ietsuna (1651-1663)

Tokugawa Iemitsu died in early 1651 before he reached the age of fifty. After his death, the Tokugawa dynasty was at major risk. Ietsuna, the heir, was only ten years old. Nonetheless, despite his age, Tokugawa Ietsuna became shogun in 1651, becoming the fourth shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was to be known as Shogun Ietsuna. Until he came of age, five regents were to rule in his place. Before he died, Iemitsu knew what his grandfather did as a regent to Toyotomi Hideyori, but thought that the dynasty was more important than that. // Events January 1 - Charles II crowned King of Scotland in Scone. ... // Events January 1 - Charles II crowned King of Scotland in Scone. ... Grave of Toyotomi Clan at Mount Koya Toyotomi Hideyori (豊臣 秀頼 Toyotomi Hideyori), 1593-1615, was the son and designated successor of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the general who first united all of Japan. ...

Ietsuna had five regents to rule in his name. These were Sakai Tadakatsu, Sakai Tadakiyo, Inaba Masanori, Matsudaira Nobutsuna (a distant member of the Tokugawa), and two others. In addition to this regency, Iemitsu handpicked his half-brother, Hoshina Masayuki.

The first thing that Shogun Ietsuna and the regency had to address was the ronin, or, "masterless samurai". During the reign of Shogun Iemitsu, two samurai, Yui Shosetsu and Marubashi Chuya, had been planning an uprising in which the city of Edo would be burned to the ground, and, amidst the confusion, Edo Castle would be raided and the shogun, other members of the Tokugawa, and high officials would be executed. Similar occurances would happen in Kyoto and Osaka. Shosetsu was himself of humble birth, and he saw Toyotomi Hideyoshi as his idol. Graves of 47 Ronin at Sengakuji A ronin (Japanese: 浪人 rōnin: literally, wave man - one who is tossed about, like a wave in the sea) was a masterless samurai during the feudal period of Japan that lasted from 1185 to 1868. ... Yui Shosetsu (? - September 10, 1651) was a samurai, military strategist, and leader of the unsuccessful Keian uprising in 1651, after which he committed seppuku. ... This page is about the city Kyoto. ... Osaka Castle, Ōsaka-jō Umeda district of Osaka Location in Japan Osaka City  listen? (大阪市; Ōsaka-shi) is the third-largest city in Japan, with a population of 2. ... Hideyoshi in old age. ...

Nonetheless, the plan was discovered after the death of Iemitsu, and Ietsuna's regents were brutal in suppressing the rebellion, which came to be known as the Keian uprising of 1651. Chuya and Shosetsu, as well as their families and supporters, were executed with brutal means. In 1652, about 800 ronin led a small disturbance on Sado Island, and this was also brutally suppressed. But for the most part, the remainder of Ietsuna's rule was not disturbed anymore by the ronin as the government became more civilian oriented. The Keian uprising (慶安事件, Keian Jiken) was a military action by ronin against the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. ... // Events April 6 - Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp for the Dutch East India Company at the Cape of Good Hope, and founded Cape Town. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Sado, Niigata. ...

In 1657, when Shogun Ietsuna was almost 20 years old, a great fire erupted in Edo and burned the city to the ground. It took two years to rebuild the city, and bakufu officials supervised the rebuilding of the city. In 1659, Shogun Ietsuna presided over the opening ceremonies.

Shogun Ietsuna and the Hold for Power (1663-1671)

In 1663, the regency for Shogun Ietsuna ended, but the regents still held power for him, the first time that the power behind the bakufu was not a former shogun. Ietsuna's chief advisors were now Hoshina Masayuki, Ietsuna's uncle who he had deep regard for, Itakura Shigenori, Tsuchiya Kazunao, Kuze Hiroyuki, and Inaba Masanori. Even though Ietsuna was now ruling in his own right, these former regents now became his official advisors, and in some cases, acted for him. In some cases, however, Ietsuna acted upon his own accord, when he came up with the idea of abolishing junshi, where a samurai follows his lord into death. // Events Prix de Rome scholarship established for students of the arts. ...

An example of this is in 1671, when the Date family of Sendai was involved in a succession dispute, the bakufu intervened, and prevented another rendition of the Onin War. By 1671, however, many of the former regents were either dead or retired, and Ietsuna began to rule in his own right. Events May 9 - Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. ... Datateknologerna vid Åbo Akademi r. ... See Sendai (disambiguation) for other places whose name is Sendai Sendai (仙台市; -shi) is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan and the largest city in the Tohoku region. ... Marker at location of outbreak of Onin War The Onin War (応仁の乱 Ōnin no ran) was a civil war from 1467 to 1477 during the Muromachi period in Japan. ...

The Later Years of Shogun Ietsuna (1671-1680)

Following the succession dispute of the Date, very few disturbances occured for the remainder of Ietsuna's reign, except some defiant daimyo.

In 1679, Shogun Ietsuna fell ill. His sucession began to be discussed, in which Sakai Tadakiyo took an active role. He suggested that a son of Emperor Go-Sai become the next shogun, following the precedent of the later Kamakura shoguns, who in reality were members of the blood royal. Tadakiyo probably saw himself as becoming powerful like the Hojo regents, and thus many members of the Tokugawa blood prefered the son of Shogun Iemitsu and Shogun Ietsuna's younger brother, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, to become shogun. Tadakiyo retired, embaressed, and shortly after, Tokugawa Ietsuna died in 1680. He was succeeded by his younger brother, Tsunayoshi. Emperor Go-Sai (後西天皇), also called Emperor Go-Saiin (後西院天皇) (January 1, 1638 - March 22, 1685) was the 111th imperial ruler of Japan. ... Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (February 23, 1646–February 19, 1709) was the fifth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. ... Events First Portuguese governor was appointed to Macau The Swedish city Karlskrona was founded as the Royal Swedish Navy relocated there. ...

Though Ietsuna would make an able leader, for his reign, affairs were controlled by the regents his fathers appointed, even after Ietsuna was declared old enough to rule in his own right.

Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu Tokugawa Iemitsu (previously spelled Iyemitsu);(1604 - 1651) was the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty who reigned from 1623 to 1651. ... The Tokugawa shogunate or Tokugawa bakufu (徳川幕府) (also known as the Edo bakufu) was a feudal military dictatorship of Japan established in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family until 1868. ... Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (February 23, 1646–February 19, 1709) was the fifth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. ...