WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.040 When you close your eyes and you picture a samurai, 00:00:02.299 --> 00:00:04.940 what's the first image that pops into your head? 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:06.940 Oh, for most people it's got to be the charge, 00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:09.960 right? The warrior screaming, riding into a hail 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:13.259 of arrows. Exactly. Choosing that glorious death 00:00:13.259 --> 00:00:17.760 over, you know, a life of dishonor. We are just 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:20.160 so culturally conditioned to love the tragic 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:22.379 hero, the figures like the last samurai who go 00:00:22.379 --> 00:00:25.960 down in a blaze of glory. It creates such a powerful 00:00:25.960 --> 00:00:29.339 narrative. We're drawn to that tragedy, the fleeting 00:00:29.339 --> 00:00:31.839 nature of the cherry blossom falling. But if 00:00:31.839 --> 00:00:33.840 you actually lived in feudal Japan, especially 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:37.140 in the Sugoku period, that glorious death, that 00:00:37.140 --> 00:00:39.829 was the easy way out. Right. And that's why today 00:00:39.829 --> 00:00:42.450 we aren't talking about the guys who guide beautifully. 00:00:42.609 --> 00:00:44.609 We are talking about the man who did something 00:00:44.609 --> 00:00:47.310 infinitely harder. He survived. He survived. 00:00:47.350 --> 00:00:49.950 And he didn't just survive. He won. We're talking 00:00:49.950 --> 00:00:52.570 about the ultimate survivor, Tokugawa Ieyasu. 00:00:52.750 --> 00:00:55.170 If you've been watching the show Shugen, you'll 00:00:55.170 --> 00:00:58.049 know him as the model for Lord Torunaga. But 00:00:58.049 --> 00:01:00.549 the real historical figure is, well, he's so 00:01:00.549 --> 00:01:02.509 much more complex than any fiction could possibly 00:01:02.509 --> 00:01:05.319 capture. This is the man who looked at a Japan 00:01:05.319 --> 00:01:07.780 that had been bleeding itself dry for a century 00:01:07.780 --> 00:01:11.640 and just said, enough. He established a peace 00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:14.840 that lasted for over 250 years. And to really 00:01:14.840 --> 00:01:17.540 grasp the magnitude of that, you have to understand 00:01:17.540 --> 00:01:20.299 the competition. Ieyasu wasn't operating in a 00:01:20.299 --> 00:01:23.420 vacuum. He was the third of the so -called three 00:01:23.420 --> 00:01:26.000 great unifiers. The big three. You've got Oda 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:29.140 Nobunaga, who is this. terrifying, brilliant 00:01:29.140 --> 00:01:31.879 disruptor. Then you have Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 00:01:32.060 --> 00:01:34.480 the peasant, who somehow became the supreme ruler 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:37.700 of Japan. And then you have Ieyasu. And there's 00:01:37.700 --> 00:01:39.920 that famous Zen proverb, right? The one about 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:42.359 the bird that wouldn't sing, which supposedly 00:01:42.359 --> 00:01:44.560 describes their personalities perfectly. It's 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:47.099 a classic. Nobunaga says, if the bird doesn't 00:01:47.099 --> 00:01:50.019 sing, kill it. Brutal. To the point. Hideyoshi 00:01:50.019 --> 00:01:52.060 says, if the bird doesn't sing, I'll make it 00:01:52.060 --> 00:01:54.400 sing. Okay. A bit more creative, a bit more forceful. 00:01:54.480 --> 00:01:56.299 But Ieyasu, he just says, if the bird doesn't 00:01:56.299 --> 00:01:58.719 sing, I'll wait for it to sing. And see, that's 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:00.480 where I think people get the wrong idea about 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:02.739 him. They hear weight, and they think he was 00:02:02.739 --> 00:02:05.219 passive. They imagine him just sitting on his 00:02:05.219 --> 00:02:08.020 porch, sipping tea, while everyone else is out 00:02:08.020 --> 00:02:10.300 there killing each other. Uh -huh. But looking 00:02:10.300 --> 00:02:13.419 at the sources, that interpretation is just... 00:02:13.419 --> 00:02:16.740 It's completely wrong. Totally wrong. It is. 00:02:17.300 --> 00:02:19.580 Yasu's weighting wasn't inactivity, it was a 00:02:19.580 --> 00:02:21.979 weapon. There's another saying, the one about 00:02:21.979 --> 00:02:24.659 the rice cake of the realm, or tenkomochi. Right. 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:27.520 Nobunaga pounds the rice cake. Hideyoshi needs 00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:30.219 it. And in the end, Ayasu sits down and eats 00:02:30.219 --> 00:02:33.099 it. Which, again, sounds like you just showed 00:02:33.099 --> 00:02:34.699 up for dessert. Yeah, it sounds like you got 00:02:34.699 --> 00:02:37.560 lucky. But our mission for this deep dive is 00:02:37.560 --> 00:02:40.159 to unpack exactly how he managed to eat that 00:02:40.159 --> 00:02:42.400 rice cake without choking on it. Because this 00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:45.379 wasn't luck. This was a masterclass in psychology 00:02:45.379 --> 00:02:48.719 and logistics and in knowing exactly when to 00:02:48.719 --> 00:02:51.099 lose a battle in order to win a war. And if we 00:02:51.099 --> 00:02:53.219 really want to understand that almost supernatural 00:02:53.219 --> 00:02:56.580 patience, that ability to endure the unendurable, 00:02:56.840 --> 00:02:59.159 we have to start at the very beginning. We have 00:02:59.159 --> 00:03:01.560 to look at his childhood. We do, because calling 00:03:01.560 --> 00:03:03.860 it rough is probably the understatement of the 00:03:03.860 --> 00:03:06.020 century. All right, let's get into section one 00:03:06.020 --> 00:03:09.539 here. The boy who is everyone's prisoner. Iyasu 00:03:09.539 --> 00:03:13.159 is born in 1543, and his original name is Matsudaira 00:03:13.159 --> 00:03:16.580 Takekiyo. Right. And his father is a minor lord, 00:03:16.780 --> 00:03:19.439 Matsudaira Hirotada. And if you just look at 00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:21.340 a map of their territory, you can see the problem 00:03:21.340 --> 00:03:23.419 immediately. It's a nightmare location. It really 00:03:23.419 --> 00:03:26.159 was a geopolitical trap. The Matsudaira lands 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:29.300 were this tiny buffer zone squeezed between two 00:03:29.300 --> 00:03:32.539 massive superpowers. To the west, you have the 00:03:32.539 --> 00:03:34.800 Oda clan Nobunaga's family who are aggressive. 00:03:34.900 --> 00:03:36.979 They're expansionists. And in the east? The Imagawa 00:03:36.979 --> 00:03:40.240 clan. They're aristocratic, wealthy, incredibly 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:42.879 powerful. And poor Hiro Tata is just trying to 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:45.219 keep his small territory from being swallowed 00:03:45.219 --> 00:03:47.500 whole by one side or the other. So his father 00:03:47.500 --> 00:03:49.479 makes this desperate choice. He needs protection 00:03:49.479 --> 00:03:51.719 from the Oda, so he goes to the Imagawa and asks 00:03:51.719 --> 00:03:54.300 for an alliance. But in feudal Japan, you don't... 00:03:54.280 --> 00:03:56.500 Don't just sign a piece of paper, do you? No, 00:03:56.520 --> 00:03:58.960 no. You need skin in the game. You need collateral. 00:04:00.439 --> 00:04:03.680 The Imagawa agreed to the alliance, but the price 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:06.780 was that Hirotada had to send his heir, his five 00:04:06.780 --> 00:04:09.740 -year -old son, Takekyo, to the Imagawa capital 00:04:09.740 --> 00:04:13.439 as a hostage. Wow. Just try to imagine being 00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:15.400 five years old, you're packed onto a palanquin, 00:04:15.500 --> 00:04:17.459 you're taken away from your mother, and you're 00:04:17.459 --> 00:04:20.000 sent to live with complete strangers. But he 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:22.279 never even makes it to the Imagawa capital, does 00:04:22.279 --> 00:04:25.139 he? No. And this is the first insane twist in 00:04:25.139 --> 00:04:27.639 a life that is just full of them. The convoy 00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:30.420 he's in is intercepted on the road. By who? The 00:04:30.420 --> 00:04:33.019 boy is kidnapped by the enemy, Oda Nobuhide, 00:04:33.180 --> 00:04:35.759 who is Nobunaga's father. So now he's a hostage 00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:37.819 of the very people his dad is trying to fight 00:04:37.819 --> 00:04:40.160 against. Exactly. And the Oda lord sends a message 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:42.759 to Ieyasu's father saying, Look, I have your 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:45.079 son. Break your alliance with the Imagawa and 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:48.339 join me or I will kill the boy. And this is the 00:04:48.339 --> 00:04:50.949 moment. This is what must have forged him. I 00:04:50.949 --> 00:04:53.230 think so, because his father receives this threat, 00:04:53.350 --> 00:04:55.689 and he refuses. He refuses, knowing they're going 00:04:55.689 --> 00:04:57.889 to kill his five -year -old son. He sends a message 00:04:57.889 --> 00:05:02.290 back. He tells the Oda Lord, go ahead, kill him. 00:05:02.810 --> 00:05:05.529 If I sacrifice my own son to keep my word to 00:05:05.529 --> 00:05:07.889 the Imagawa, it will only prove to the world 00:05:07.889 --> 00:05:11.490 how loyal and honorable I am. That is. Just chilling. 00:05:11.959 --> 00:05:14.259 I mean, from a samurai code perspective, I guess 00:05:14.259 --> 00:05:16.759 that's the ultimate display of honor. But for 00:05:16.759 --> 00:05:19.259 a little boy, hearing that your own father is 00:05:19.259 --> 00:05:21.759 willing to let you die just to prove a political 00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:24.379 point. It teaches you a brutal lesson very, very 00:05:24.379 --> 00:05:27.300 early on. Yeah. You are a political pawn. Your 00:05:27.300 --> 00:05:30.600 life is currency. You are not a person. You are 00:05:30.600 --> 00:05:33.639 an asset to be traded or, you know, discarded 00:05:33.639 --> 00:05:36.290 if necessary. But surprisingly, the Oda lord 00:05:36.290 --> 00:05:38.509 didn't actually kill him. Why not? What stopped 00:05:38.509 --> 00:05:40.689 him? We don't know for sure. Yeah. Perhaps he 00:05:40.689 --> 00:05:42.589 was impressed by the father's resolve, or maybe 00:05:42.589 --> 00:05:44.970 he just realized that a live hostage is always 00:05:44.970 --> 00:05:47.829 more useful than a dead one. So Ieyasu spends 00:05:47.829 --> 00:05:50.149 the next few years in captivity at a temple in 00:05:50.149 --> 00:05:52.850 Nagoya, deep in Oda territory. And this is where 00:05:52.850 --> 00:05:54.449 the legends come in, right? There are all these 00:05:54.449 --> 00:05:56.410 stories that during this time, he met a young 00:05:56.410 --> 00:05:59.490 Oda Nobunaga. It's one of those historical maybe 00:05:59.490 --> 00:06:02.490 moments that's just too good to ignore. You have 00:06:02.490 --> 00:06:05.879 these two future unifiers. Nobunaga, the wild, 00:06:05.980 --> 00:06:08.899 unruly youth who disregarded all tradition, and 00:06:08.899 --> 00:06:12.360 Ieyasu, the quiet, observant prisoner. Wow. Just 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:14.620 circling each other's orbit from the very beginning? 00:06:14.899 --> 00:06:17.740 Whether they formally met or just knew of each 00:06:17.740 --> 00:06:20.199 other, they were right there. But eventually, 00:06:20.300 --> 00:06:23.500 the political winds shifted again. Ieyasu's father 00:06:23.500 --> 00:06:26.560 died. And through a really complex prisoner exchange 00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:29.740 after a siege, Iyasu was finally sent to where 00:06:29.740 --> 00:06:31.319 he was supposed to go in the first place. To 00:06:31.319 --> 00:06:33.339 the Imagawa. To the Imagawa. So he goes from 00:06:33.339 --> 00:06:35.399 being a prisoner of the Oda to being a prisoner 00:06:35.399 --> 00:06:38.600 of the Imagawa. But the vibe was different there, 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:40.439 wasn't it? Oh, completely different. He was taken 00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:43.079 to Sunpu, the Imagawa capital. This is a place 00:06:43.079 --> 00:06:46.220 of high culture. modeled after Kyoto. The Imagawa 00:06:46.220 --> 00:06:48.279 were aristocrats as much as they were warriors. 00:06:48.459 --> 00:06:51.259 So he wasn't locked in a cell. Not at all. Iyasu, 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:53.720 who's now called Motoyasu, was treated like a 00:06:53.720 --> 00:06:56.240 VIP. He was educated in the classics, he learned 00:06:56.240 --> 00:06:58.579 military strategy, and he was basically being 00:06:58.579 --> 00:07:02.319 groomed to be a loyal vassal. They even married 00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:05.160 him to a relative of the Imagawa lord, a woman 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:07.600 named Lady Tsukiyama. It sounds like a gilded 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:10.339 cage. He's being set up to be a loyal general 00:07:10.339 --> 00:07:12.980 for the people who own him. And for a while, 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:14.959 it seems to work. He fights for them. He wins 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:17.459 battles for them. He seems resigned to his fate 00:07:17.459 --> 00:07:20.660 as a subordinate. He really does. Until 1560. 00:07:21.379 --> 00:07:25.199 The Battle of Okehazam. This is the first major 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:27.680 pivot point in his life, and you could argue 00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:29.279 it's the most important one. Okay, let's unpack 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:31.819 that. Section two, the pivot. So the Imagawa 00:07:31.819 --> 00:07:34.100 Lord Yoshimoto, he decides it's time to finally 00:07:34.100 --> 00:07:37.100 crush the upstart Oda clan. He gathers this massive 00:07:37.100 --> 00:07:40.259 army, what was it, 25 ,000 men? At least. A huge 00:07:40.259 --> 00:07:42.949 force. And he marches west. And Yasu is part 00:07:42.949 --> 00:07:45.089 of this invasion. He is. He's commanding the 00:07:45.089 --> 00:07:47.209 vanguard. He's sent ahead to capture a fortress 00:07:47.209 --> 00:07:49.430 called Maroon. And he does it perfectly. He's 00:07:49.430 --> 00:07:52.089 a competent, loyal soldier. He captures the fort 00:07:52.089 --> 00:07:54.230 and then he just waits for new orders. But while 00:07:54.230 --> 00:07:56.870 he's sitting there waiting, Oda Nobunaga pulls 00:07:56.870 --> 00:07:59.230 off the impossible. The surprise attack. The 00:07:59.230 --> 00:08:02.290 ultimate gamble. Nobunaga, with just a tiny force, 00:08:02.569 --> 00:08:05.629 uses a thunderstorm as cover to sneak up on the 00:08:05.629 --> 00:08:07.870 main Imagawa camp. He launches this lightning 00:08:07.870 --> 00:08:10.810 raid and kills Imagawa Yoshimoto himself. The 00:08:10.810 --> 00:08:12.930 head of the snake is cut off. Just like that. 00:08:13.129 --> 00:08:16.069 The invincible warlord is dead. The massive army 00:08:16.069 --> 00:08:18.850 just dissolves in panic and chaos. So Ieyasu 00:08:18.850 --> 00:08:21.009 is sitting in this captured fortress and he gets 00:08:21.009 --> 00:08:23.769 the news. Now the traditional samurai expectation 00:08:23.769 --> 00:08:26.750 here would be what? To march to his lord's death 00:08:26.750 --> 00:08:29.310 site and commit seppuku? Right. Or to launch 00:08:29.310 --> 00:08:31.930 a suicide charge against the Oda to avenge his 00:08:31.930 --> 00:08:34.570 master. That's the honor play. That's what the 00:08:34.570 --> 00:08:37.289 tragic hero we talked about does. Ieyasu. You 00:08:37.289 --> 00:08:39.669 look at the board. He sees the Imagawa are headless 00:08:39.669 --> 00:08:41.990 and chaotic. He sees an opening. He retreats, 00:08:41.990 --> 00:08:44.509 not to fight, but back to his own ancestral castle 00:08:44.509 --> 00:08:47.210 in Okazaki. He kicks out the Imagawa garrison 00:08:47.210 --> 00:08:49.350 and he locks the door. He declares independence. 00:08:49.809 --> 00:08:52.769 He reclaims his birthright. And then he makes 00:08:52.769 --> 00:08:55.590 the most pragmatic, cold -blooded move imaginable. 00:08:55.690 --> 00:08:58.309 He allies with the man who just killed his master. 00:08:58.529 --> 00:09:01.549 He forms the Kyosu alliance with Oda Nobunaga. 00:09:01.690 --> 00:09:04.049 It's purely transactional. It's like, you killed 00:09:04.049 --> 00:09:06.409 my boss. Great, now I'm free. Let's work together. 00:09:06.970 --> 00:09:10.330 But... There's a massive complication. His wife 00:09:10.330 --> 00:09:12.970 and his young son are still back in the Imagoa 00:09:12.970 --> 00:09:15.470 capital. Yep. They are effectively hostages. 00:09:15.590 --> 00:09:18.649 And now he is a traitor in the eyes of the Imagoa. 00:09:18.710 --> 00:09:21.090 So they're furious. They are absolutely going 00:09:21.090 --> 00:09:23.629 to execute his family. Right. He also needs to 00:09:23.629 --> 00:09:25.909 get them out. But he can't march an army all 00:09:25.909 --> 00:09:27.929 the way to Sunpu. So he has to get creative. 00:09:28.289 --> 00:09:31.470 This is where we see the heist movie aspect. 00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:34.399 of history. And this is where Hattori Hanzo comes 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:36.220 into the picture. And I feel like we have to 00:09:36.220 --> 00:09:38.740 clarify here, pop culture has turned him into 00:09:38.740 --> 00:09:41.840 like a ninja wizard who can teleport. But he 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:43.759 was a real guy, right? Oh, absolutely. He was 00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:45.679 a real samurai from the Eger region, a place 00:09:45.679 --> 00:09:47.940 famous for unconventional warfare. He wasn't 00:09:47.940 --> 00:09:50.279 casting spells, but he's basically running black 00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:53.200 ops. So what does Ieyasu have him do? He tasks 00:09:53.200 --> 00:09:56.080 Hanzo with a stealth mission. They infiltrate 00:09:56.080 --> 00:09:58.419 a castle held by the Imagawa, and they capture 00:09:58.419 --> 00:10:00.519 two high -ranking members of the Udono family. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:03.299 who were important vassals of the Yamagawa. So 00:10:03.299 --> 00:10:06.059 he's kidnapping them for a prisoner swap. Exactly. 00:10:06.820 --> 00:10:09.700 Ieyasu then trades the Yudono hostages for his 00:10:09.700 --> 00:10:12.639 wife and son. And it works. He gets his family 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:15.080 back. So he's got his family back, he's got his 00:10:15.080 --> 00:10:17.600 alliance with Nobunaga, but things aren't exactly 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:21.659 smooth sailing at home. We have to talk about 00:10:21.659 --> 00:10:24.519 the Ikechiki Uprising, because this really tests 00:10:24.519 --> 00:10:27.679 his leadership style in a big way. The Ikechiki 00:10:27.679 --> 00:10:30.840 were a nightmare for every samurai lord. They 00:10:30.840 --> 00:10:33.360 were this coalition of militant monks and peasants, 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:36.700 all united by a radical form of pure land Buddhism. 00:10:37.019 --> 00:10:39.019 And they didn't answer to feudal laws, did they? 00:10:39.159 --> 00:10:41.860 Nope. They answered to their faith. They controlled 00:10:41.860 --> 00:10:45.019 a huge chunk of Ieyasu's own home province, Mikawa. 00:10:45.220 --> 00:10:47.519 They refused to pay taxes, and they were heavily 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:50.470 armed. And the really scary part for Ieyasu was 00:10:50.470 --> 00:10:52.669 that it wasn't just, you know, peasants with 00:10:52.669 --> 00:10:55.490 pitchforks. Some of his own samurai started defecting 00:10:55.490 --> 00:10:57.649 to join the monks, right? Yes, and that was the 00:10:57.649 --> 00:11:00.149 real threat. Their religious loyalty was stronger 00:11:00.149 --> 00:11:02.870 than their feudal loyalty to him. Men he trusted, 00:11:03.009 --> 00:11:05.950 like Hana Masanobu, turned against him. It became 00:11:05.950 --> 00:11:08.710 a bitter, nasty civil war right in his own backyard. 00:11:09.070 --> 00:11:11.889 And Ieyasu fought on the front lines. I read 00:11:11.889 --> 00:11:14.149 there are records of bullets literally striking 00:11:14.149 --> 00:11:17.429 his armor. He barely survived. He did. But here 00:11:17.429 --> 00:11:20.409 is the key insight. When he finally wins, when 00:11:20.409 --> 00:11:22.649 he crushes the rebellion and burns their temples, 00:11:22.809 --> 00:11:25.289 you expect him to go full tyrant. You expect 00:11:25.289 --> 00:11:27.809 mass executions. Especially of the guys who betrayed 00:11:27.809 --> 00:11:30.190 him. Right. But he doesn't do that. Yeah. He 00:11:30.190 --> 00:11:33.809 displays this just terrifying level of rationality. 00:11:33.950 --> 00:11:36.429 He looks at the defectors, specifically a guy 00:11:36.429 --> 00:11:39.049 like Honda Masanobu, and he thinks this man is 00:11:39.049 --> 00:11:41.309 a traitor, but he's also a brilliant strategist. 00:11:41.330 --> 00:11:43.730 And right now I need brilliance more than I need 00:11:43.730 --> 00:11:46.580 revenge. So he forgives him. Just like that. 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:49.340 He welcomes him back. And Honda Masanobu goes 00:11:49.340 --> 00:11:52.440 on to become Ieyasu's closest advisor, his right 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:54.759 -hand man, for decades. That is a superpower. 00:11:54.919 --> 00:11:57.000 The ability to just suppress your ego, suppress 00:11:57.000 --> 00:11:59.539 your anger, and make the cold calculation that 00:11:59.539 --> 00:12:02.139 a live asset is better than a dead enemy. It's 00:12:02.139 --> 00:12:04.100 a theme we will see again and again and again 00:12:04.100 --> 00:12:07.580 with him. He turns enemies into tools. But just 00:12:07.580 --> 00:12:09.980 as he secures his base at home, he runs into 00:12:09.980 --> 00:12:11.879 a force of nature that he cannot manipulate. 00:12:12.120 --> 00:12:14.960 He runs into Takeda Shingen. The Tiger of Kai. 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:18.659 Section 3. The Crucible. This is the Battle of 00:12:18.659 --> 00:12:22.539 Miketayohara in 1573. And honestly, this is the 00:12:22.539 --> 00:12:25.580 only time we see Ieyasu make a truly stupid mistake, 00:12:25.759 --> 00:12:28.580 and it seems to be born of pride. It was a complete 00:12:28.580 --> 00:12:31.240 disaster. Takeda Shingen had the most feared 00:12:31.240 --> 00:12:34.080 cavalry in Japan. He was on the march, moving 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:36.080 through Ieyasu's territory on his way to the 00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:39.769 capital. Yasu's advisors, and even Nobunaga himself, 00:12:40.190 --> 00:12:42.830 told him, do not fight him in the open. Stay 00:12:42.830 --> 00:12:45.929 in your castle. Let him pass. Wait him out. But 00:12:45.929 --> 00:12:48.600 Yasu doesn't listen. He rides out. He couldn't 00:12:48.600 --> 00:12:50.960 stand the idea of the Takeda army just marching 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:53.100 through his backyard without a challenge. He 00:12:53.100 --> 00:12:54.960 felt he had to prove himself. So he met them 00:12:54.960 --> 00:12:57.980 on the Miketegahara Plateau. And the Takeda army 00:12:57.980 --> 00:13:00.539 absolutely dismantled him. It wasn't even a battle. 00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:02.919 It was a massacre. Ieyasu barely escaped with 00:13:02.919 --> 00:13:04.779 his life. There's a famous story that he was 00:13:04.779 --> 00:13:06.720 so terrified during the retreat that he actually 00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:09.200 lost control of his bowels on the saddle. And 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:10.899 being Ieyasu, he later commissioned a portrait 00:13:10.899 --> 00:13:13.259 of himself looking miserable and defeated. It's 00:13:13.259 --> 00:13:15.960 called The Frowning Image. To hang on his wall 00:13:15.960 --> 00:13:17.799 and remind himself never to be that. arrogant 00:13:17.799 --> 00:13:21.500 ever again. Wow. But the immediate problem was 00:13:21.500 --> 00:13:24.039 that he had fled back to Hamamatsu Castle with 00:13:24.039 --> 00:13:26.879 just a handful of men. The entire Takeda army 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:29.720 was right behind him. He had no troops to man 00:13:29.720 --> 00:13:32.080 the walls. He was trapped. So he pulls the empty 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:34.740 fort strategy. This is straight out of the Chinese 00:13:34.740 --> 00:13:37.080 classic romance of the Three Kingdoms. It's the 00:13:37.080 --> 00:13:40.240 ultimate bluff. It is. He orders the castle gates 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:43.500 to be flung wide open. He orders huge bonfires 00:13:43.500 --> 00:13:46.070 to be lit in the courtyard. And then he orders 00:13:46.070 --> 00:13:48.450 a musician to sit up on the ramparts and beat 00:13:48.450 --> 00:13:52.389 a large war drum in a slow, steady, calm rhythm. 00:13:52.730 --> 00:13:55.070 I mean, imagine the psychological pressure. You 00:13:55.070 --> 00:13:57.950 are completely defenseless and your only shield 00:13:57.950 --> 00:14:00.409 is a bluff. The decaded generals arrive at the 00:14:00.409 --> 00:14:03.149 castle. They see the open gates. They hear the 00:14:03.149 --> 00:14:05.169 calm drumming and they completely overthink it. 00:14:05.269 --> 00:14:07.029 They think it's a trap. They think this is too 00:14:07.029 --> 00:14:08.950 easy. It has to be a trap. The courtyard must 00:14:08.950 --> 00:14:10.889 be a kill zone filled with muskets and archers. 00:14:10.950 --> 00:14:13.110 So instead of storming in and ending Iyasu's 00:14:13.110 --> 00:14:15.769 life right then and there, They make camp for 00:14:15.769 --> 00:14:18.190 the night to be cautious, and Ieyasu survives. 00:14:18.690 --> 00:14:21.610 He learned caution the hard way. But survival 00:14:21.610 --> 00:14:24.070 in this era required more than just clever bluffs. 00:14:24.090 --> 00:14:26.750 It required sacrifices, that. Well, they make 00:14:26.750 --> 00:14:29.450 your stomach turn. We have to discuss the Nobyasu 00:14:29.450 --> 00:14:33.129 incident in 1579. This is the darkest chapter 00:14:33.129 --> 00:14:36.409 in his life, without a doubt. Ieyasu's powerful 00:14:36.409 --> 00:14:40.509 ally, Oda Nobunaga, begins to suspect that Ieyasu's 00:14:40.509 --> 00:14:43.450 wife, Lady Tsukuyama, and his eldest son and 00:14:43.450 --> 00:14:46.879 heir, Nobuyasu, are conspiring with the Takeda 00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:48.919 clan against him. Okay, but was there any truth 00:14:48.919 --> 00:14:51.440 to it? Was it real? Historians are really split. 00:14:51.860 --> 00:14:54.440 Lady Tsukuyama certainly hated Nobunaga, and 00:14:54.440 --> 00:14:56.220 for some pretty good reasons. But whether there 00:14:56.220 --> 00:14:59.080 was an actual plot is debatable. In the end, 00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:01.879 it didn't matter to Nobunaga. He sent an order 00:15:01.879 --> 00:15:04.779 to Ieyasu. What was the order? Execute your wife 00:15:04.779 --> 00:15:07.029 and your son. Just like that, an order, this 00:15:07.029 --> 00:15:09.590 is the ultimate test. If Ieyasu refuses, the 00:15:09.590 --> 00:15:12.309 alliance with Nobunaga is broken, the Oda army 00:15:12.309 --> 00:15:14.730 will invade, and the Tokugawa clan will be wiped 00:15:14.730 --> 00:15:16.909 out. And if he agrees, he has to murder his own 00:15:16.909 --> 00:15:19.090 family. Most men would have fought. Most men 00:15:19.090 --> 00:15:21.110 would have chosen honor and died protecting their 00:15:21.110 --> 00:15:25.070 family. But Ieyasu chose the plan. To preserve 00:15:25.070 --> 00:15:27.870 the house of Tokugawa, he ordered his wife to 00:15:27.870 --> 00:15:31.009 be beheaded, and he ordered his son, his own 00:15:31.009 --> 00:15:34.320 heir. to commit seppuku. I just cannot wrap my 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:36.840 head around the coldness, the sheer calculation 00:15:36.840 --> 00:15:38.919 required to do that. It permanently proved his 00:15:38.919 --> 00:15:41.340 loyalty to Nogunaga for sure, but it must have 00:15:41.340 --> 00:15:44.340 just hollowed him out as a human being. It showed 00:15:44.340 --> 00:15:46.679 that for Ieyasu, the long -term survival of the 00:15:46.679 --> 00:15:49.039 lineage was more important than any individual 00:15:49.039 --> 00:15:52.559 life. Even his own, even his son's. He just absorbed 00:15:52.559 --> 00:15:54.919 that trauma and kept moving forward. And he had 00:15:54.919 --> 00:15:57.500 to because the chaos just kept coming. Which 00:15:57.500 --> 00:16:00.500 brings us to section four, the chaos of 1582. 00:16:01.100 --> 00:16:03.399 The Hanaji Incident. The Red Wedding of Japanese 00:16:03.399 --> 00:16:06.779 History. Nobunaga is at the absolute height of 00:16:06.779 --> 00:16:09.500 his power, effectively ruling all of Japan. And 00:16:09.500 --> 00:16:11.700 then, overnight, he is assassinated by his own 00:16:11.700 --> 00:16:14.340 general, Akechi Mitsuhide. And where is Ieyasu 00:16:14.340 --> 00:16:16.279 when all this goes down? He's not safe at home. 00:16:16.419 --> 00:16:18.919 He's touring the Kansai region near Osaka with 00:16:18.919 --> 00:16:21.600 just a small entourage. Suddenly, he is deep 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:24.539 in enemy territory. He is a sitting duck. Akechi 00:16:24.539 --> 00:16:26.620 is hunting for all of Nobunaga's key allies. 00:16:27.100 --> 00:16:29.720 But the bigger danger, really, is the Okimushigari. 00:16:30.090 --> 00:16:33.190 The fallen warrior hunt. Exactly. Groups of peasants 00:16:33.190 --> 00:16:36.389 and local bandits who would hunt down isolated 00:16:36.389 --> 00:16:39.250 samurai to kill them for their armor, their swords, 00:16:39.529 --> 00:16:42.429 their money, and their horses. So Iyasu has to 00:16:42.429 --> 00:16:45.210 get back to his home province, Mikawa, but all 00:16:45.210 --> 00:16:47.110 the main roads are blocked and crawling with 00:16:47.110 --> 00:16:48.990 enemies. He has to go through the Iga Mountains. 00:16:49.169 --> 00:16:52.529 The famous Iga Crossing. It's legendary. It was 00:16:52.529 --> 00:16:55.590 this rugged, lawless region. He has to rely on 00:16:55.590 --> 00:16:58.769 Hattori Hanzi again to negotiate safe passage 00:16:58.769 --> 00:17:01.049 with the local ninja clans and the Jizamurai. 00:17:01.190 --> 00:17:03.169 And this wasn't a casual stroll through the mountains. 00:17:03.389 --> 00:17:05.789 Not at all. It was a desperate flight. Records 00:17:05.789 --> 00:17:07.930 suggest they were constantly fighting skirmishes, 00:17:08.029 --> 00:17:10.029 bribing bandits, literally running for their 00:17:10.029 --> 00:17:12.910 lives. His escort was supposedly cut down from 00:17:12.910 --> 00:17:15.549 200 men to just 34 by the time he got back. But 00:17:15.549 --> 00:17:17.769 he makes it. He gets home. And this is the part 00:17:17.769 --> 00:17:20.250 that just blows my mind. He's exhausted. He's 00:17:20.250 --> 00:17:22.210 traumatized. His most powerful ally is dead. 00:17:22.390 --> 00:17:24.029 You would think he would just lock the castle 00:17:24.029 --> 00:17:26.349 gates and hide under a bed for a month. But he 00:17:26.349 --> 00:17:28.650 does the opposite. He goes on the offensive. 00:17:29.089 --> 00:17:31.289 This is what sets him apart from everyone else. 00:17:31.579 --> 00:17:34.279 He immediately realizes that with Nobunaga dead 00:17:34.279 --> 00:17:37.059 and the Takeda clan having been previously destroyed, 00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:40.400 there is a massive power vacuum in the eastern 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:42.799 provinces of Kai and Shinano. While everyone 00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:45.140 else is panicking or mourning. He launches the 00:17:45.140 --> 00:17:47.980 Tenshu Jingo campaign. He grabs the land while 00:17:47.980 --> 00:17:50.240 no one is looking. He turns a crisis into real 00:17:50.240 --> 00:17:52.440 estate. He expands his power base significantly. 00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:55.460 And that extra land, that extra power, gives 00:17:55.460 --> 00:17:57.599 him the weight he needs for the next big phase. 00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:01.259 The dance with Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Right. Section 00:18:01.259 --> 00:18:04.880 five, Nobunaga is gone. Hideyoshi rises from 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:07.000 the ashes to take his place. And eventually these 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:09.359 two, the two biggest players left on the board, 00:18:09.420 --> 00:18:11.619 they have to butt heads. This leads to the Battle 00:18:11.619 --> 00:18:14.799 of Kamaki and Nagakute in 1584. This is a really 00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:17.140 fascinating conflict because on the battlefield, 00:18:17.380 --> 00:18:20.519 Ieyasu actually wins. His tactics are superior. 00:18:20.680 --> 00:18:22.940 His generals, like the famously fierce Honda 00:18:22.940 --> 00:18:25.799 Dadakatsu, completely outmaneuver Hideyoshi's 00:18:25.799 --> 00:18:28.000 troops. So Hideyoshi realizes something important. 00:18:28.430 --> 00:18:31.210 He realizes he can't crush Ieyasu militarily, 00:18:31.329 --> 00:18:34.329 not without bleeding his own army dry and maybe 00:18:34.329 --> 00:18:37.250 losing. But Hideyoshi has the resources. He controls 00:18:37.250 --> 00:18:39.309 the rest of Japan. He can afford a stalemate. 00:18:39.509 --> 00:18:42.990 Ieyasu can't. Exactly. So Ieyasu does the math. 00:18:43.410 --> 00:18:46.089 He realizes that winning a few battles isn't 00:18:46.089 --> 00:18:49.809 going to win him the war. So he submits. He swallows 00:18:49.809 --> 00:18:52.369 his pride again and bows his head to Hideyoshi. 00:18:52.529 --> 00:18:55.730 He accepts the role of a vassal to avoid the 00:18:55.730 --> 00:18:57.980 complete destruction of his clan. And Hideyoshi, 00:18:58.240 --> 00:19:01.059 being the shrewd operator he is, decides to handle 00:19:01.059 --> 00:19:03.339 Ieyasu with a very specific, very clever strategy. 00:19:03.579 --> 00:19:05.980 He gives him a gift. The transfer to the Kanto 00:19:05.980 --> 00:19:07.920 region. It's one of the greatest political traps 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:11.319 in history. It really is. Yeah. In 1590, Hideyoshi 00:19:11.319 --> 00:19:14.220 finally conquers the Huju clan in the east. He 00:19:14.220 --> 00:19:16.500 turns to Ieyasu and says, look, I'll give you 00:19:16.500 --> 00:19:19.039 all these new Huju lands, the entire Kanto region. 00:19:19.220 --> 00:19:21.319 It's huge, much bigger than what you have now. 00:19:21.519 --> 00:19:24.299 But in exchange, you have to give up your ancestral 00:19:24.299 --> 00:19:26.759 home of Mikawa. It looks like a promotion, but 00:19:26.759 --> 00:19:29.819 it's actually an exile. Precisely. Hideyoshi 00:19:29.819 --> 00:19:32.059 is moving Ieyasu hundreds of miles away from 00:19:32.059 --> 00:19:35.319 Kyoto, the center of politics. He's dumping him 00:19:35.319 --> 00:19:38.680 in what was then a rustic, swampy backwater filled 00:19:38.680 --> 00:19:41.599 with angry Hoshi loyalists who might rebel at 00:19:41.599 --> 00:19:43.640 any moment. He thinks he's burying Ieyasu in 00:19:43.640 --> 00:19:46.079 a sandbox so he can't cause trouble. And Ieyasu 00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:48.420 just smiles, bows, and says thank you very much. 00:19:48.579 --> 00:19:50.839 And he moves his headquarters to a small, insignificant 00:19:50.839 --> 00:19:53.670 fishing village called Edo. Which, of course, 00:19:53.710 --> 00:19:56.829 a few centuries later becomes Tokyo. Ieyasu saw 00:19:56.829 --> 00:19:59.410 what Hideyoshi missed, didn't he? He absolutely 00:19:59.410 --> 00:20:02.009 did. He saw that the Kanto Plain is the largest 00:20:02.009 --> 00:20:05.410 single agricultural area in Japan. If you could 00:20:05.410 --> 00:20:08.170 drain the swamps and control the floods, which 00:20:08.170 --> 00:20:10.349 Ieyasu immediately started doing with massive 00:20:10.349 --> 00:20:13.009 civil engineering projects, you could grow more 00:20:13.009 --> 00:20:16.039 rice than anyone else. And in feudal Japan, rice 00:20:16.039 --> 00:20:18.759 is money. Rice is money and rice is military 00:20:18.759 --> 00:20:22.259 capacity. So while all the other lords are bickering 00:20:22.259 --> 00:20:24.460 in Kyoto or bankrupting themselves fighting in 00:20:24.460 --> 00:20:27.480 Hideyoshi's disastrous invasions of Korea, Ieyasu 00:20:27.480 --> 00:20:29.900 is quietly off in the corner, building a nation 00:20:29.900 --> 00:20:32.559 state. He literally won the empire by retreating. 00:20:32.579 --> 00:20:35.539 He isolated himself to build strength. And then 00:20:35.539 --> 00:20:37.950 he waited. He just waited for nature to take 00:20:37.950 --> 00:20:40.630 its course. He waited for Hideyoshi to die. Which 00:20:40.630 --> 00:20:43.630 he eventually does in 1598. And just like that, 00:20:43.769 --> 00:20:46.509 the power vacuum is back. Hideyoshi leaves behind 00:20:46.509 --> 00:20:49.329 a five -year -old son, Hideyori, and a council 00:20:49.329 --> 00:20:51.509 of five powerful elders who are meant to protect 00:20:51.509 --> 00:20:55.269 him. And Ieyasu is by far the most powerful man 00:20:55.269 --> 00:20:57.809 on that council. Almost immediately, the country 00:20:57.809 --> 00:21:00.289 splits into two factions. You have the Western 00:21:00.289 --> 00:21:03.490 Army, led by the bureaucrat Hide Mitsunari, who 00:21:03.490 --> 00:21:05.650 was fighting to protect the Toyotomi heir. And 00:21:05.650 --> 00:21:08.250 on the other side? The Eastern Army, led by Tokugawa 00:21:08.250 --> 00:21:11.990 Ieyasu. And this all leads us to Section 6, Sekigahara, 00:21:12.130 --> 00:21:16.329 the decisive battle, October 21, 1600. It is 00:21:16.329 --> 00:21:18.569 the largest samurai battle in Japanese history. 00:21:18.690 --> 00:21:21.829 We're talking about maybe 75 ,000 men on Ieyasu's 00:21:21.829 --> 00:21:24.990 side versus roughly 120 ,000 on the Western side. 00:21:25.289 --> 00:21:27.509 And it happens on this foggy morning in a narrow 00:21:27.509 --> 00:21:30.710 valley. On paper, Iyasu is seriously outnumbered. 00:21:30.710 --> 00:21:33.170 He should lose. He should. But battles aren't 00:21:33.170 --> 00:21:34.710 just fought with spears. They're fought with 00:21:34.710 --> 00:21:37.589 letters. Iyasu had been very, very busy in the 00:21:37.589 --> 00:21:39.269 months leading up to the fight. What was he doing? 00:21:39.509 --> 00:21:41.670 He had been secretly communicating with several 00:21:41.670 --> 00:21:44.069 of the daimyo in the Western Army, promising 00:21:44.069 --> 00:21:46.970 them land, titles, and power if they switched 00:21:46.970 --> 00:21:50.390 sides at the crucial moment. And the key figure 00:21:50.390 --> 00:21:53.710 was a young, indecisive warlord named Kobayakawa 00:21:53.710 --> 00:21:56.809 Hideaki. Kobayakawa was positioned on a hill 00:21:56.809 --> 00:21:59.730 overlooking the entire battlefield. If he charged 00:21:59.730 --> 00:22:02.289 down, he could smash Ieyasu's flank and end the 00:22:02.289 --> 00:22:05.089 battle. Right. So the battle starts. People are 00:22:05.089 --> 00:22:07.269 dying by the thousands. It's a bloody stalemate. 00:22:07.369 --> 00:22:10.890 And Kobayakawa just sits there on his hill. He 00:22:10.890 --> 00:22:13.029 freezes. He clearly freezes. He can't decide 00:22:13.029 --> 00:22:15.269 which side to back. He's just watching the carnage, 00:22:15.309 --> 00:22:18.390 paralyzed by indecision. So Ieyasu does something 00:22:18.390 --> 00:22:21.759 that seems completely insane. He orders his musketeers 00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:24.680 to fire on Kobayakawa. He fires on his own potential 00:22:24.680 --> 00:22:26.759 ally. On the guy he's trying to woo over to his 00:22:26.759 --> 00:22:29.039 side. It was a wake -up call, but with bullets. 00:22:29.319 --> 00:22:32.099 The message was crystal clear. Make a choice 00:22:32.099 --> 00:22:34.200 right now, or I will treat you as an enemy and 00:22:34.200 --> 00:22:37.619 destroy you next. It panicked Kobayakawa. What 00:22:37.619 --> 00:22:40.019 did he do? He immediately ordered his troops 00:22:40.019 --> 00:22:42.640 to charge down the hill. Not Ieyasu, but at his 00:22:42.640 --> 00:22:44.859 own allies in the Western Army. That betrayal 00:22:44.859 --> 00:22:47.920 just broke the Western Army's morale. The lines 00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:51.160 collapsed. Total chaos. Ieyasu won a complete 00:22:51.160 --> 00:22:54.279 victory. In one afternoon, the civil wars that 00:22:54.279 --> 00:22:56.539 had plagued Japan for a century were effectively 00:22:56.539 --> 00:23:00.099 over. Ieyasu was the last man standing. But he's 00:23:00.099 --> 00:23:03.799 not quite done yet. Section 7. Building the Shogunate. 00:23:04.019 --> 00:23:08.000 In 1603, the emperor officially names him Shogun. 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:10.259 He finally has the title he's been working towards 00:23:10.259 --> 00:23:13.420 his whole life. He establishes the Tokugawa Shogunate 00:23:13.420 --> 00:23:16.619 in his new capital of Edo. But then, in a move 00:23:16.619 --> 00:23:19.200 that confused everyone at the time, he resigns 00:23:19.200 --> 00:23:22.839 just two years later in 1605. Why? Why work that 00:23:22.839 --> 00:23:25.059 hard for the top job just to quit? He passed 00:23:25.059 --> 00:23:27.380 the title to his son, Hidetada. And this was 00:23:27.380 --> 00:23:29.539 a brilliant political maneuver. Hideyoshi's great 00:23:29.539 --> 00:23:31.420 mistake was that he made his rule all about him. 00:23:31.640 --> 00:23:34.359 By his personality, Ieyasu wanted to prove that 00:23:34.359 --> 00:23:36.420 the shogunate was a system, that it was hereditary. 00:23:36.599 --> 00:23:38.980 So by stepping down, he became the ogosho, the 00:23:38.980 --> 00:23:41.559 retired shogun. He still held all the real power 00:23:41.559 --> 00:23:43.559 from behind the scenes, but he freed himself 00:23:43.559 --> 00:23:45.700 from all the tedious ceremonial busywork of the 00:23:45.700 --> 00:23:48.140 court. He's still playing 40 chess, but there's 00:23:48.140 --> 00:23:52.160 one last loose end. The Toyotomi heir, Hideyori. 00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:54.640 He is still alive, and he's growing up in the 00:23:54.640 --> 00:23:57.799 massive, impregnable Osaka Castle. And as long 00:23:57.799 --> 00:24:00.880 as Hideyori lived, the Toyotomi name was a potential 00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:03.500 rallying cry for anyone who was unhappy with 00:24:03.500 --> 00:24:07.000 Tokugawa rule. Samurai who lost their lands at 00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:10.059 Sekigahara, they all flocked to Osaka. It was 00:24:10.059 --> 00:24:13.480 a ticking time bomb. So Ieyasu, now an old man, 00:24:13.740 --> 00:24:16.039 decides he needs to pick a fight. And the pretext 00:24:16.039 --> 00:24:18.819 he uses is almost laughable. The incident of 00:24:18.819 --> 00:24:21.599 the temple bell. It's incredible. Hideyori rebuilt 00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:24.220 a temple and had this massive bronze bell cast. 00:24:24.900 --> 00:24:26.859 Ieyasu's scholars claimed the inscription on 00:24:26.859 --> 00:24:29.460 the bell was a curse. A curse? How? They argue 00:24:29.460 --> 00:24:31.380 that the characters for Ieyasu were broken up 00:24:31.380 --> 00:24:33.920 by another character, which supposedly signified 00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:36.180 a wish for his body to be shattered. It was completely 00:24:36.180 --> 00:24:38.200 ridiculous. But it was the excuse he needed. 00:24:38.559 --> 00:24:41.180 a casus belli. This leads to the siege of Osaka 00:24:41.180 --> 00:24:44.980 in 1614, the Winter Siege. But Osaka Castle is 00:24:44.980 --> 00:24:47.819 a beast. It's considered impregnable. Yasu can't 00:24:47.819 --> 00:24:50.640 break in. So he switches from war to diplomacy. 00:24:50.819 --> 00:24:53.500 He negotiates a truce. He tells Hideyori's mother, 00:24:53.619 --> 00:24:56.099 let's have peace. This fighting is pointless. 00:24:56.640 --> 00:24:59.200 And as part of the peace deal, he says the Tokugawa 00:24:59.200 --> 00:25:01.660 troops will help fill in the outer moats of the 00:25:01.660 --> 00:25:04.019 castle, just as a sign of good faith, you know, 00:25:04.019 --> 00:25:06.059 to demilitarize the zone. Fill in the moats. 00:25:06.059 --> 00:25:08.000 It sounds like a reasonable landscaping project. 00:25:08.700 --> 00:25:11.660 But Ieyasu's men didn't stop at the outer moats. 00:25:11.660 --> 00:25:13.500 They kept working. They filled the inner moats. 00:25:13.539 --> 00:25:15.539 They tore down the ramparts. They worked day 00:25:15.539 --> 00:25:18.119 and night. By the time the Toyotomi realized 00:25:18.119 --> 00:25:20.440 what was happening, the strongest castle in Japan 00:25:20.440 --> 00:25:23.019 had been turned into a defenseless house on a 00:25:23.019 --> 00:25:25.859 hill. That is the ultimate dirty trick. But it 00:25:25.859 --> 00:25:28.420 worked. When hostilities inevitably resumed the 00:25:28.420 --> 00:25:31.160 next summer, the summer siege, the castle fell 00:25:31.160 --> 00:25:34.130 easily. Hideyori committed seppuku. The Toyotomi 00:25:34.130 --> 00:25:36.609 line was extinguished. The last threat was finally 00:25:36.609 --> 00:25:39.509 gone. Ieyasu was 73 years old. He had finally 00:25:39.509 --> 00:25:41.789 eaten the whole rice cake. The board was clear. 00:25:42.069 --> 00:25:44.430 Let's move to Section 8. What did he actually 00:25:44.430 --> 00:25:47.609 do with this total, absolute power? He built 00:25:47.609 --> 00:25:50.490 a prison. A very comfortable, very stable, very 00:25:50.490 --> 00:25:53.630 peaceful prison. He looked at why Nobunaga and 00:25:53.630 --> 00:25:56.410 Hideyoshi ultimately failed. Their systems were 00:25:56.410 --> 00:25:59.569 too volatile, too dependent on one man. Ieyasu 00:25:59.569 --> 00:26:02.009 locked everything down. He reorganized all the 00:26:02.009 --> 00:26:05.049 daimyo, right? The feudal lords? Yes. He created 00:26:05.049 --> 00:26:08.430 a class system based on loyalty. The Fudai were 00:26:08.430 --> 00:26:10.630 the lords who had supported him before Sekigahara. 00:26:10.789 --> 00:26:12.890 They got all the strategic lands and the important 00:26:12.890 --> 00:26:14.849 positions in government. And the ones who joined 00:26:14.849 --> 00:26:17.710 him later? The Tuzama, the outsider lords. They 00:26:17.710 --> 00:26:19.630 were pushed to the edges of the map. They were 00:26:19.630 --> 00:26:21.690 kept rich enough to be quiet, but they were placed 00:26:21.690 --> 00:26:24.150 so far away that they could never threaten Ito. 00:26:24.559 --> 00:26:27.180 And his successors later instituted the Senken 00:26:27.180 --> 00:26:29.799 Kotai system, forcing them to spend every other 00:26:29.799 --> 00:26:32.599 year in Edo, basically draining their money on 00:26:32.599 --> 00:26:34.279 travel so they couldn't afford to build armies. 00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:37.299 Exactly. And he also locked down foreign policy. 00:26:37.579 --> 00:26:39.700 This brings us back to Shugun and the character 00:26:39.700 --> 00:26:42.420 of Blackthorn. The real man was William Adams, 00:26:42.680 --> 00:26:44.980 an English pilot who washed ashore in Japan. 00:26:45.319 --> 00:26:47.799 And Ieyasu actually liked him, didn't he? He 00:26:47.799 --> 00:26:51.039 was fascinated by him. Adams became a close advisor 00:26:51.039 --> 00:26:53.910 on things like shipbuilding and geometry. But 00:26:53.910 --> 00:26:56.630 more importantly, Adams explained to him that 00:26:56.630 --> 00:26:59.130 the Catholic powers, Spain and Portugal, had 00:26:59.130 --> 00:27:01.549 colonial ambitions. He explained that where the 00:27:01.549 --> 00:27:03.410 missionaries went, the armies often followed. 00:27:03.670 --> 00:27:07.269 And this just confirmed Iassu's suspicions. He 00:27:07.269 --> 00:27:09.890 saw Christianity as a political threat, a loyalty 00:27:09.890 --> 00:27:12.490 to a foreign pope over a loyalty to the shogun. 00:27:12.589 --> 00:27:15.309 So he pivoted. He favored trade with the Dutch 00:27:15.309 --> 00:27:18.089 and the English, who he saw as just wanting to 00:27:18.089 --> 00:27:21.640 trade, not conquer. And eventually, in 1614, 00:27:21.859 --> 00:27:24.599 he banned Christianity entirely and expelled 00:27:24.599 --> 00:27:27.579 the missionaries. This began the policy of isolation 00:27:27.579 --> 00:27:30.259 sukoku that would seal Japan off from the outside 00:27:30.259 --> 00:27:32.619 world for centuries. What about the man himself? 00:27:32.720 --> 00:27:34.400 We know the strategist, but what was he like 00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:36.940 to, you know, hang out with? He was eccentric. 00:27:37.119 --> 00:27:39.079 He was a total health nut, actually. He mixed 00:27:39.079 --> 00:27:41.380 his own herbal medicines and usually refused 00:27:41.380 --> 00:27:43.319 to take what the professional doctors gave him. 00:27:43.559 --> 00:27:45.640 He was known to swim in the castle moats for 00:27:45.640 --> 00:27:47.799 exercise well into his old age. And what about 00:27:47.799 --> 00:27:50.200 the falconry? He was obsessed with falconry, 00:27:50.200 --> 00:27:53.759 but he didn't just see it as a sport. For him, 00:27:53.759 --> 00:27:56.579 it was military training. Walking through rough 00:27:56.579 --> 00:27:58.859 terrain, organizing the hunting party, managing 00:27:58.859 --> 00:28:01.740 the birds, it kept his body and his mind sharp. 00:28:02.099 --> 00:28:04.920 He truly believed that a ruler had to be physically 00:28:04.920 --> 00:28:07.839 robust to rule effectively. He was obsessed with 00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:10.500 longevity, which makes perfect sense. His greatest 00:28:10.500 --> 00:28:12.799 weapon was simply outliving all of his enemies. 00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:15.500 He knew. He knew that if he just stayed alive, 00:28:15.640 --> 00:28:17.740 the impulsiveness and ambition of others would 00:28:17.740 --> 00:28:19.799 eventually destroy them. But eventually, something 00:28:19.799 --> 00:28:23.539 got him. Yeah, in 1616, he died at age 73. There's 00:28:23.539 --> 00:28:25.440 a popular legend that he died from eating too 00:28:25.440 --> 00:28:28.940 much tempura. Death by tempura. Really? He supposedly 00:28:28.940 --> 00:28:32.319 ate a large meal of sea bream tempura and got 00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:35.039 a fatal stomach ache. In reality, it was almost 00:28:35.039 --> 00:28:36.960 certainly stomach cancer or something similar. 00:28:37.319 --> 00:28:40.200 But he died knowing his work was done. He was 00:28:40.200 --> 00:28:42.960 deified after his death as Tush Daigomen, the 00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:45.480 great gongan, light of the east. He literally 00:28:45.480 --> 00:28:47.740 became a god meant to protect the nation he had 00:28:47.740 --> 00:28:50.069 built. So when we zoom out and we look at the 00:28:50.069 --> 00:28:53.170 three unifiers together, the contrast is just 00:28:53.170 --> 00:28:56.430 so stark. Nobunaga was the destroyer. He broke 00:28:56.430 --> 00:28:59.509 the old medieval system. Hiyoshi was the conqueror. 00:28:59.569 --> 00:29:02.289 He forged a new shape for the country with his 00:29:02.289 --> 00:29:05.569 charisma and ambition. But Iyasu, he was the 00:29:05.569 --> 00:29:08.789 architect, the builder. Nobunaga had genius, 00:29:08.990 --> 00:29:12.150 but he was reckless and impulsive. Hiyoshi had 00:29:12.150 --> 00:29:15.619 charisma, but he overreached. Iyasu had the temperament 00:29:15.619 --> 00:29:18.640 to make it last. He created a system that, for 00:29:18.640 --> 00:29:20.619 better or worse, kept the peace for two and a 00:29:20.619 --> 00:29:22.460 half centuries. You know, it brings me back to 00:29:22.460 --> 00:29:24.720 that idea of him as the cunning old badger. People 00:29:24.720 --> 00:29:27.539 often paint his patience as cynical or manipulative, 00:29:27.660 --> 00:29:30.700 but I wonder, was it actually a form of supreme 00:29:30.700 --> 00:29:32.880 optimism? That's a really fascinating angle. 00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:34.839 What do you mean? I mean, to wait that long, 00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:37.480 to endure being a hostage, to kill your own son, 00:29:37.579 --> 00:29:40.880 to bow to your enemies time and time again, you 00:29:40.880 --> 00:29:43.359 have to believe deep down that eventually you 00:29:43.359 --> 00:29:45.710 will win. You have to believe that survival itself 00:29:45.710 --> 00:29:48.609 is worth any price. He proves that the person 00:29:48.609 --> 00:29:51.109 who crosses the finish line first isn't always 00:29:51.109 --> 00:29:54.150 the winner. Sometimes the real winner is the 00:29:54.150 --> 00:29:55.950 person who makes sure there's still a track left 00:29:55.950 --> 00:29:58.529 to run on for everyone else. He built a shelter 00:29:58.529 --> 00:30:00.950 that the Japanese people lived in for 250 years. 00:30:01.069 --> 00:30:03.089 So for everyone listening, here's the question. 00:30:03.869 --> 00:30:06.910 In your own life... In your own struggles, are 00:30:06.910 --> 00:30:08.970 you pounding the rice cake? Are you frantically 00:30:08.970 --> 00:30:11.730 kneading it? Or do you have the discipline to 00:30:11.730 --> 00:30:15.009 sit down, light the torches, play the drum, and 00:30:15.009 --> 00:30:17.210 just wait to eat it? Sometimes the smartest move 00:30:17.210 --> 00:30:19.410 really is to just wait. Thanks for listening 00:30:19.410 --> 00:30:21.630 to this deep dive into the life of the ultimate 00:30:21.630 --> 00:30:24.349 survivor, Tokugawa Ieyasu. We'll see you next 00:30:24.349 --> 00:30:24.630 time.