Tokugawa Mitsukuni

• Born: 1628
• Died: 1701
• Japanese: 徳川光圀 (Tokugawa Mitsukuni)

Tokugawa Mitsukuni was the second Edo period lord of Mito han, and is strongly associated with the Mitogaku intellectual movement. He was the son of Tokugawa Yorifusa, and grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Mitsukuni commissioned the beginning of a great history of Japan, the Dai Nihon Shi, which was begun in 1657, and continued by his descendants, being finally completed in 1906. Mitsukuni also completed the Kôrakuen gardens in Edo, begun by his father. For both of these projects, he enlisted the help of Ming loyalist Zhu Shunsui.

References

• Schirokauer, et al., A Brief History of Japanese Civilization, Wadsworth Cengage (2013), 146.