Name: PHILIP WALSTROM

Title: Uniting Japan: The Story of Tokugawa Ieyasu

Specific Purpose: To inform the audience about the life of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Thesis Statement: I will inform you about of three periods in this incredible man’s life:
1) His early life, 2) His relations with Hideyoshi and 3) His Conquering Japan

I. INTRODUCTION

A. Hook: Imagine all your earliest memories being of you being a political
prisoner for the benefit of your family. Then imagine yourself being given a
kingdom to rule when you’re fifteen. Imagine being a fifteen year old general,
fighting in a battle with the lives of thousands of people utterly dependant on your
actions.

B. Rapport: About five hundred and fifty eight years ago, there started a period
of chaos in Japan called the Warring States Period. The turmoil would continue
for about one hundred and fifty years. During this period, poverty and famine
were commonplace, as was banditry. Regional warlords fought bitterly to conquer
the whole of Japan. During this era, a man was born, heir to a minor clan, who
would in time unite Japan under his fist and establish a two hundred and fifty year
dynasty.

C. Creditability: I personally love history. I take history courses for fun. I love
history so much, I memorize lectures on it without any effort. Last summer, I aced
a history course without taking any notes or even buying the required book. In
particular, I like Japanese history, specifically the Warring States Period. I spend a
lot of time enjoying both fictional and non-fictional accounts of the major people
of the period and the battles they took part in.

D. Bridge: This afternoon, I will inform you about three periods in this incredible
man’s life: 1. His early life 2. His relations with Hideyoshi and 3. His Conquering
Japan

II. BODY

A. Early Life

1. Birth and life as a political prisoner (Sadler, A. L. Maker of Modern

Japan)

2. Beginnings as a warlord
Transition Statement: Ieyasu had failed. He had been too slow in taking control of
the land, and now had to fight Hideyoshi. If Ieyasu failed again he would either lose
his life or be forced to serve Hideyoshi. Even so however, Ieyasu’s determination to
rule Japan would never die.

B. His relations with Hideyoshi

1. The beginning of Hideyoshi’s rise to power (Jansen, Marius, ed. The

Making of Modern Japan)

2. Hideyoshi’s death and aftermath (McClain, James The Cambridge

History of Japan Volume 4)

Transition Statement: With this the stage was set for the greatest battle ever fought
in Japan. A battle where the entire course of Japan’s future rode on the shoulders of
a few dozen commanders. A battle at a place called Sekigahara.

C. Conquering Japan

1. Sekigahara: The fulcrum of destiny (Bryant, Anthony J. Sekigahara

1600: The Final Struggle For Power)

2. Consolation (Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. Kyoto: the Old Capital of

Japan)

II. A. 1. Matsudaira Takechiyo of the Mikawa Province was born on January 31 1543 as a
son of the Mikawa Clan’s leader.

In 1548, a rival clan invaded Mikawa, they then turned to their old ally the Imagawa for
help. The Imagawa agreed to help, provided the Mikawa gave Takechiyo to them as a
hostage. Mikawa’s leader agreed to hand over the five year old child. However the
enemy, had learned of this arrangement and had Takechiyo abducted en route to the
Imagawa capital.

The enemy ordered the Mikawa to break their ties with the Imagawa clan or else the boy
would be executed. The Mikawa’s leader felt that such a sacrifice would improve
relations between the Mikawa and Imagawa. So he refused. However, the enemy chose
not to kill Takechiyo but instead held him under their power.

When Takechiyo was nine, the Imagawa won him back and Takechiyo became the
Imagawa’s hostage. According to A. Sadler’s book Maker of Modern Japan, Takechiyo
lived in the Imagawa capital without any event worth noting. However, when Takechiyo
was fifteen, he came of age. He was then sent to Mikawa to rule it as Imagawa’s ally. He
then fought in several battles, many of which he won, against the Imagawa’s chief rival:
the Oda. In 1560, the Oda, lead by a man named Nobunaga, defeated an Imagawa force
and killed the Imagawa leader. Takechiyo promptly abandoned the weakened Imagawa
and allied himself with the Oda.

2. In 1567, at the age of twenty four, Takechiyo changed his name. This new name
suggested that he was related to the emperor, something that would permit him, someday,
in theory, to be named Shogun, the de facto ruler of Japan. This name was Tokugawa
Ieyasu.

From 1567 on, Ieyasu fought with several clans and allied with several others.
Throughout this period of war and shifting alliances, only two things remained constant
for Ieyasu. His alliance with Nobunaga and the fact that his territory was steadily
increasing. By 1582, Nobunaga had either defeated or allied with one third of the
warlords in Japan, a feat unparalleled in one hundred years of civil war. It was at this
point however that Nobunaga was killed in a coup d’tat. Although the killer, claimed
Nobunaga’s holdings as his own, many warlords refused to recognize this claim.

Ieyasu jumped at the chance to slay the traitor and claim Nobunaga’s land. However, he
was too late, another former general of Nobunaga’s, a commoner, had beaten Ieyasu to it.
A man named Hideyoshi.

Transition Statement: Ieyasu had failed. He had been too slow in taking control of
the land, and now had to fight Hideyoshi. If Ieyasu failed again he would either lose
his life or be forced to serve Hideyoshi. Even so however, Ieyasu’s determination to
rule Japan would never die.

B. 1. Hideyoshi immediately had to defend his position against Ieyasu. They fought to a
stalemate. Hideyoshi then sought to become Shogun, but the Emperor refused him the
title and Hideyoshi was named regent to the Emperor’s son, and begin to conquer all of
Japan.

Although Ieyasu was under Hideyoshi’s rule, Hideyoshi never trusted the man he
couldn’t defeat and prevented Ieyasu from fighting in most of Hideyoshi’s battles.
Hideyoshi couldn’t have known, but this was a huge mistake. After a short time,
Hideyoshi had conquered all of Japan and even started launching unsuccessful attacks on
Korea. As ruler he passed a noteworthy reform, as noted by Marius Jansen the writer of
The Making of Modern Japan, the reform being the banning of weapons for all non
Samurai.

B. However, after only twelve years of rule Hideyoshi died. This left Hideyoshi’s dynasty
in trouble. He left a five year old boy as his heir and Hideyoshi had been a weak ruler, as
McClain notes in The Cambridge History of Japan Volume 4, Hideyoshi as a commoner,
had had to back up all of his orders as Regent with force. With Hideyoshi’s death Ieyasu
saw his chance again. His armies hadn’t fought in any battles for years and that gave
Ieyasu a military advantage. He began to forge alliances and in two years was ready.
Hideyoshi’s most popular general had died by this time and furthermore Hideyoshi’s
empire was in the hands of Mitsunari, an unpopular bureaucrat. Ieyasu attacked the
residence of Hideyoshi’s son and took control of it. Tensions quickly rose with the
warlords of Japan choosing one side or the other. Many of Hideyoshi’s men, including
Hideyoshi’s wife supported Ieyasu.

Transition Statement: With this the stage was set for the greatest battle ever fought
in Japan. A battle where the entire course of Japan’s future rode on the shoulders of
a few dozen commanders. The battle of Sekigahara.

C. 1. The two sides met on a large plain. Ieyasu was outnumbered but had bribed many
on the other side to join him when he gave a certain signal. Anthony Bryant, author of
Sekigahara 1600: The Final Struggle For Power says that without those bribes, Ieyasu
would have lost. But, a combination of traitors and disagreements within Mitsunari’s
army allowed Ieyasu’s forces to win the day. Mitsunari and his top generals were caught
and killed.

2. With that Ieyasu, being a Samurai and being of the Emperor’s lineage was named
Shogun, and with this every warlord swore their loyalty to him. Ieyasu had conquered
Japan. He then rewarded his followers and the traitors of Sekigahara. After five years
Ieyasu named his son Shogun and retired, although keeping the real power. Ponsonby-
Fane's book: Kyoto: the Old Capital of Japan tells us that later in life Ieyasu took up both
scholarship and religion.

III. CONCLUSION Ieyasu was born with nothing. But, with ability and fortune, Ieyasu
conquered a nation. Ieyasu wrote a few quotes that describe his character and how he was
able to do what he did.

"Life is like unto a long journey with a heavy burden. Let your step be slow and steady,
that you stumble not. Persuade yourself that imperfection and inconvenience are the
natural lot of mortals, and there will be no room for discontent, neither for despair.”

"The strong manly ones in life are those who understand the meaning of the word
patience. I am not as strong as I might be, but I have long known and practiced patience.
And if my descendants wish to be as I am, they must study patience."

Tokugawa Ieyasu was an amazing man.

IV. Bibliography

Sadler, A. L. Maker of Modern Japan: the Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tuttle Publishing,
1978 p.47

Jansen, Marius, ed. The Making of Modern Japan. 2000 p. 23

McClain, James The Cambridge History of Japan Volume 4. 1991 p. 85

Bryant, Anthony J. Sekigahara 1600: The Final Struggle For Power. 1995. p.22

Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. Kyoto: the Old Capital of Japan, 794-1969 (1956). p. 418.