Tokugawa Ienari

• Born: 1773
• Died: 1841
• Reign: 1787-1837
• Other Names: 松平 豊千代 (Matsudaira Toyochiyo)
• Japanese: 徳川 家斉 (Tokugawa Ienari)

Tokugawa Ienari was the 11th Tokugawa shogun.

A son of Tokugawa Harunari (aka Harusada]], head of the Hitotsubashi branch family of the Tokugawa clan, Ienari was adopted into the main shogunal Tokugawa lineage and became shogun after Tokugawa Ieharu's death in 1786. Ienari's formal accession ceremonies were held on 1787/4/15.

He married Shige-hime (aka Kôdai-in), a daughter of Shimazu Shigehide, in 1789. She gave birth to their first child, Atsunosuke, in 1797, but he died when he was only age 4.

Ienari was named Dajô daijin on 1827/3/18.

Ienari had more than twenty children, many of whom were adopted into other families; Hachisuka Narihiro, Ienari's 22nd child, serves as just one example. Ienari's daughter Yôhime married Maeda Nariyasu, lord of Kaga han. At the time of his abdication on 1837/4/2, however, Ienari had only one living son who had not been adopted away: Tokugawa Ieyoshi, who thus succeeded him as shogun. The next two shoguns after Ieyoshi would be grandsons of Ienari: Ieyoshi's son Tokugawa Iesada, followed by Tokugawa Iemochi, a son of Ienari's son Tokugawa Nariyuki.

Following his death in 1841, Ienari was buried at the Tokugawa clan family temple of Kan'ei-ji. While a number of shogunal mausolea were lost in the bombings of Tokyo during World War II, his is among those which survive.

Preceded by: Tokugawa Ieharu

Tokugawa Shogun 1787-1837

Succeeded by: Tokugawa Ieyoshi

References

• Evelyn Rawski, Early Modern China and Northeast Asia: Cross-Border Perspectives, Cambridge University Press (2015), 161.