Tokugawa Tadateru

  • Born: 1592
  • Died: 1683
  • Other names: 松平忠輝 (Matsudaira Tadateru)
  • Japanese: 徳川忠輝 (Tokugawa Tadateru)

Tokugawa Tadateru, also known as Matsudaira Tadateru, was the seventh son of Tokugawa Ieyasu. His mother was Ocha no Tsubone. Despite being only a child, he was married to the daughter of Date Masamune in 1599. He was later adopted by Matsudaira Yasutada and received a 180,000 koku fief in Shinano (Sakura).

In 1605, he was sent to meet with Toyotomi Hideyori, as part of formal social audiences surrounding the appointment of Tokugawa Hidetada to the position of Shogun. Since Hideyori could not pay a formal visit to Hidetada, for fear of it being seen as an admission of inferior status, and for fear of perhaps even being captured, Tadateru instead went to him, in Osaka castle.[1]

In 1610 Tadateru received the fief of Takada in Echigo province, worth 620,000 koku. Following a scandal during the Siege of Osaka Castle, to which Tadateru had come only tardily, he was accused of plotting against Hidetada and lost his lands. In 1616, he was exiled to Ise province. He eventually settled in Suo province, where he lived in obscurity to an advanced age, the last of Ieyasu’s sons to pass away.

References

  1. Morgan Pitelka, Spectacular Accumulation, University of Hawaii Press (2016), 93.