Tokugawa Ieharu

Tokugawa Ieharu ( Japanese 徳 川 家 治 ; * June 20, 1737 ; † September 17, 1786 ), was the 10th Shogun of the Edo period in Japan from 1760 to 1786 .

Life path

Tokugawa Ieharu was the eldest son of Tokugawa Ieshige . His mother was Okō , his father's second wife. After his abdication, at the age of 23, he became his successor. During his tenure, the accession to the throne of Kōkaku -Tennō fell.

Tokugawa Ieharu in classic court dress

The samurai Yamagata Daini and the writer Fujii Umon were executed in 1767 because they conspired, with 34 others arrested, to weaken the Bakufu and strengthen the Tennō rule.

Ieharu's interests were limited to wine and women, which is why council member Tanuma Okitsugu ( 田 沼 意 次 ; 1719-88) from 1769 succeeded in gaining complete control over the affairs of government and the Shogun over major events and disasters in the country, such as the earthquake of Sakuragira (1779), the famine that has ruled since 1782, the outbreak of the Asama ( 浅 間 山 , Shinano province ) and the floods caused by the Tonegawa (1783) in ignorance. Tanuma's corrupt policies a. led to a deterioration in coins , went hand in hand with a certain liberality that allowed art and science - including the increased import of Dutch books - to flourish. In 1784 celebrations took place across the country in memory of Kūkai , the founder of esoteric Shingon Buddhism.

Ieharu's first son and designated successor, Iemoto, and one other son died before him, so his successor, Ienari , was chosen from the Hitotsubashi line of the clan.

The decline of the Tokugawa rule began with Ieharu. His grave is in the Kan'ei-ji of Ueno ; posthumously he was given the name Shimmei-in .

literature

• Ramming, Martin (ed.); Japan Manual; , Berlin 1941; S 602: "Tokugawa Ieharu"
• Berend Wispelwey (Ed.): Japanese Biographical Archive; Munich 2007, ISBN 3-598-34014-1 , Fiche 386
• Carl Steenstrup ; A Gustavian Swede in Tanuma Okitsugu's Japan: marginal notes to Carl Peter Thunberg's Travelogue; Journal of intercultural studies 6 (1979), pp. 20-42.
• Tsuji Zennosuke; Tanuma-jidai; INBK, 1980

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ramming, Martin (ed.); Japan-Handbuch Berlin 1941; P. 585
2. ↑ Ramming, Martin (ed.); Japan-Handbuch Berlin 1941; Pp. 151, 651

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Tokugawa is the family name, Ieharu the first name.