Tokugawa Ieyasu: The Ordinary Man Who Survived Until the End

Tokugawa Ieyasu was not the type of person to overwhelm others with a strong personality or flashy successes, like Oda Nobunaga or Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
If anything, he was cautious and pragmatic.
He was a person who moved persistently according to the situation at hand.

However, perhaps that was the very strength needed to survive the Sengoku period until the end.
Even though Ieyasu was not as prominent a figure as Nobunaga or Hideyoshi, why was he the one who finally unified the country and created a system that would last for so long?

Why is Ieyasu not as prominent as Nobunaga and Hideyoshi?

Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi are bothfigures who are easy to turn into stories.

Nobunaga has a very strong impression as an innovator who broke down the old order.
Whether it was the burning of Mount Hiei or the Rakuichi Rakuza policy, he was always a figure who shook the era.

Hideyoshi was a person who rose from a peasant background to become the ruler of the country.
His rags-to-riches story is easy to understand, and he had a charisma that drew people in.
He had the power to step forward not only in war but also in politics.

Compared to them,Tokugawa Ieyasu is a bit harder to grasp.
He did not have the intensity of Nobunaga, nor did he have a flashy success story like Hideyoshi.
Rather, Ieyasu was a person who accumulated power little by little over time, even while experiencing defeat and submission.
Perhaps because of that, he inevitably leaves a plain impression.

Ieyasu's strength was 'survival' rather than 'winning'

In history, stories about 'overturning a disadvantageous situation with few troops' are always popular.
Minamoto no Yoshitsune's'Hiyodorigoe no Sakarotoshi'and Nobunaga's'Battle of Okehazama'are typical examples.

However, such clever schemes are just that—schemes.
The basis of battle is not a miraculous comeback, but preparing the conditions for victory in advance.
Military strength, alliances, supplies, and retreat routes. Securing those things one by one.
That was exactly where Ieyasu was strong.

Rather than going for flashy gambles, he did not push his luck.
If he was likely to lose, he held his ground and waited until the situation was favorable for victory.
Even if it looked like a detour, I think that was the stronger way to remain until the end.

Sekigahara was not a miraculous comeback, but a culmination of preparation

I don't get the impression that Ieyasu won the Battle of Sekigahara through brilliant battlefield tactics.
That battle must have been largely decided by the preparations made before reaching the battlefield.

It is often said thatKobayakawa Hideaki's betrayalwas what determined the outcome, but there are various theories.

However, at the very least, it can be said that Ieyasu prevented the Western Army from becoming a unified force through prior maneuvering.
Even if the opponent has troops, if they don't move as intended, it makes a huge difference at that point.

Isn't it more fitting to see Sekigahara as the result of Ieyasu carefully creating a situation where he could win, rather than a battle overturned by a flashy, clever scheme?

Ieyasu's greatness lies in making the unification of the country a 'lasting form'

Ieyasu's greatness is not just that he unified the country.
It lies in the fact that after he took control,he ensured it would not easily collapse.

For example, consider the placement of the daimyo.
He placed hereditary daimyo in key locations and kept the tozama daimyo at a distance.
In doing so, he created a structure where rebellions were unlikely to occur.
He didn't just stop at winning battles; he ensured that future battles would be less likely to happen.

As an even more important point, Ieyasudid not end it with 'his own rule,' but
made it the 'Tokugawa rule.'

If Ieyasu were only strong as an individual, it would have collapsed after his death.
That is why he passed the shogunate to Hidetada, demonstrating that the government would continue as a family system rather than relying on individual charisma.

This might be the point that is most characteristic of Ieyasu.
Both Nobunaga and Hideyoshi had regimes that relied heavily on their own personal capabilities.
But Ieyasu thought about not ending it with his own single generation of victory.

It seems he placed more importance on creating a structure that would last after him than on simply taking control of the realm.

Because he was plain, he was able to win in the end.

Ieyasu did not have the revolutionary nature of Nobunaga, nor the heroic rags-to-riches story of Hideyoshi.
That might be why he seems to have a weak impression at first.

But in an unstable era like the Warring States period, perhaps it was not flashiness that mattered most in the end.
Rather than winning big, it was about not being finished even if you lost.
Not pushing forward too recklessly, but remaining. That was where Ieyasu's strength lay.

Moreover, Ieyasu did not stop at taking control of the realm.
He transformed it into an order that would last for a long time.
When you include all of this, Ieyasu's strength is quite unique.
He was inconspicuous, but the one who won in the end was an ordinary man.

'A person's life is like walking a long road carrying a heavy burden. Do not rush.'

Bibliography

• Kazuto Hongo, 'The Person Called Tokugawa Ieyasu'