Ieyasu walks a few steps more, composes the next sentence carefully – “You see, I was sent to be sent to the Imagawa when I was five years old…” – and now, something clicks in for the 56-year-old warlord, and he starts to relive those past memories to explain the roots of his thinking to his beloved son.
***
VANTAGES #10: PATIENCE
The Japanese have a whole host of witty sayings about The Three Great Unifiers of Japan.
One that’s less flattering to Ieyasu than most –
Nobunaga pounded the rice
Hideyoshi baked the cake
And Tokugawa Ieyasu ate it
We have arrived at the final act of this epic and sweeping drama; Nobunaga hammered a new vision into the nation, but his assassination had cut off his life’s work halfway through.
In fairness, Hideyoshi Toyotomi truly did usurp Nobunaga and his heirs – but despite that, Hideyoshi was a marvelous man with many splendid characteristics for the first 50 years of his life. He’s still well-loved by the Japanese for “baking the cake” of the peaceful era to follow.
So in the end, why did Tokugawa Ieyasu wind up eating the cake? His family would rule Japan for the next 250 years.
Ieyasu would answer you in one word, the single core virtue and operating principle that all of his life was based upon, and our Vantage for this chapter –
Patience.
***
BORN AT THE CROSSROADS
“Hidetada, my son, my childhood was very different than yours. It can be hard to imagine at this time of ever-increasing authority and growing signs of peace and stability, but the whole of Japan was in war – war in every direction, many sides vying for power, total chaos and shifting alliances, with no overseer… Japan had been abandoned by the gods and kamis; there was no ability for the Emperor or the Shogun to enforce any sort of peace.
“Born into that era, there was something special about the hostile lands that Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and I were born into – we were born not that far apart in time or space – those lands were a central battleground and time was always against us. We were forced to evolve and expand, or be boxed-in and die… it was always up-or-down, we could not choose sideways…”
The Three Great Unifiers of Japan were all born in the same region – Oda Nobunaga had been born in Nagoya Castle of Owari in summer 1534; Hideyoshi was born 2 years later in a peasant hut in Owari in winter 1536; Ieyasu was born 7 years later in the neighboring Mikawa Province.
These provinces were part of Japan’s “Tokaiko” – critical provinces that ran along the south coast of the center of the country. Anyone marching to or from the Imperial Capital of Kyoto into the eastern half of Japan has to at least consider taking the Tokaido Road; if your enemies control it, they can move troops and supplies faster than you.
Even today, the Tokaido Road is the most heavily trafficked road in Japan – connecting Japan’s four largest cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, and Osaka with the ancient capital of Kyoto. It was, is, and remains a critical roadway.
Thus, the Three Great Unifiers were born at a natural crossroads – and natural battlefield. Isolation and neutrality was not an option. In any conflict, there was the choice of “for or against” – across the larger arc of life, the two choices were “expansion or annihilation” – to fail to grow and expand, at those fateful crossroads, was to be destroyed. There was no other choice.
***
FOR OR AGAINST: BETWEEN THE IMAGAWA AND ODA CLANS
“Our old home province of Mikawa sat between two powerful and warlike clans – the Oda to the west, and the Imagawa to the east. In this conflict, each would send their armies directly through Mikawa to fight the other. We always had to choose who we were with; neutrality was to make an enemy of both clans…”
In this lawless era of unrestrained conflict, Tokugawa Ieyasu’s grandfather – Hidetada’s great-grandfather – was murdered at the age of 25 years old, seven years before Ieyasu was born.
Historically, Ieyasu’s clan – they were called the “Matsudaira Clan” at the time, but for simplicity I’ll just call them “Tokugawa” throughout the story to make it easier to follow as the Japanese changed names frequently in the era – historically, the Tokugawa Clan had been allied with the Oda.
After the murder of Ieyasu’s grandfather, his father broke from this tradition and allied with the rising power of the Imagawa Clan to the east.
This caused infighting among the Tokugawa Clan (still called “Matsudaira” at the time; again, we’ll simply refer to them as the Tokugawa for simplicity). There was internal infighting between secondary family members of the household.
While the Tokugawa allying against them, the Oda Clan supported rebellion and made constant raids into Tokugawa lands.
***
YOUNG PARENTS; NO PARENTS; HOSTAGE
“Hidetada, it has been one of the greatest joys of my life to raise you into adulthood myself and to see you mature into a man. Your great-grandfather and your grandfather did not have such a luxury. Nobunaga and Hideyoshi had similar childhoods – we found ourselves alone in the world at a young age…”
Ieyasu’s father Hirotada was 17 years old, and Ieyasu’s mother 15 years old, when he was born.
Obviously, teenagers are not so worldly and do not know much about how to raise children.
Making matters worse, Ieyasu’s father Hirotada had likewise lost his own father at age 10 when he had been murdered.
In times of no law and order, people often are forced to create alternative ways of enforcing treaties and agreements. One of the most cruel of these, looking backwards, was the usage of family members and children as hostages and bargaining chips.
The Oda Clan invaded Tokugawa lands once again when Ieyasu was five years old. The Imagawa agreed to push the Oda out, but demanded the young Ieyasu from his father as a hostage to seal the pact.
The Oda heard that the young boy was being escorted to the Imagawa, and sent out a raiding party to capture him – and were successful.
Wikipedia: Tokugawa Ieyasu –
“[Oda Clan leader and Nobunaga’s father] Nobuhide threatened to execute [five-year-old] Ieyasu unless his father severed all ties with the Imagawa clan. Hirotada [Ieyasu’s father] replied that sacrificing his own son would show his seriousness in his pact with the Imagawa clan. Despite this refusal, Nobuhide chose not to kill Ieyasu, but instead held him for the next three years at the Mansho Temple in Nagoya.”
***
FATHERLESS WARLORDS
Having recounted the geopolitical landscape to Hidetada, Ieyasu now gets quiet for a moment, digging deep into painful memories he typically would not access or recall. After walking slowly for a time his son, Ieyasu composes himself and begins speaking again.
Ieyasu’s father was assassinated the following year – he was alone in the world as a six-year-old.
Two years later, Oda Nobuhide died from a sudden stroke or epileptic seize – most likely natural causes, but also possibly an assassin’s poison.
Again, Nobunaga was nine years older than Ieyasu.
There were now 17 years old and 8 years old, respectively, and both had lost their fathers.
Hideyoshi Toyotomi would not appear in official histories and biographies until he was in his 20’s, and thus his origins were less clear, but it’s noteworthy that he, too, lost his father at a young age.
It’s been remarked and noted, across all eras of history, that people who lose their parents young are often forced to mature faster and become hardened against worldly troubles. What, after all, can be more a poignant reminder of mortality than seeing one’s parents die young?
All three Great Unifiers faced this exact situation, and constantly showed maturity beyond their years.
When the Imagawa launched a successful invasion against the Oda and were about to seize a noteworthy castle, they offered a deal – they would lift the siege if the heir to the Tokugawa Clan, Ieyasu, was delivered to him.
&n
bsp; Thus, the nine-year-old fatherless Ieyasu was now delivered as a hostage to the other side of the war.
***
THE EDUCATION OF A HOSTAGE
“From the age of five to the age of thirteen, I was a hostage. If I spoke up or acted restlessly as a young boy, I was liable to be beaten. As I got older, the threat of death loomed over me. I did not play like the other boys – I learned to survive and bide my time.”
As a boy, Ieyasu was noted to be constantly studying, almost “monk-like,” the works of Confucius and military histories of China.
At the age of five, the Oda had threatened to execute him, and his own father had said – well, fine, the execution of my son only proves my loyalty to the Imagawa. Seeing no advantage thus in putting the young boy to death, the Oda had kept him as a bargaining chip, later trading him back to the Imagawa in exchange for keeping a castle they were about to lose.
There’s a Japanese anecdote how, much later in life after consolidating his position, Ieyasu came across a samurai who had abused and tormented him as a boy. Spotting him while riding with retainers, now on the rise as one of the more powerful warlords of the era, he had the man arrested and executed.
Maybe that story is true, and maybe it’s not, but it’s somewhat telling either way. Ieyasu learned to conceal his emotions, to not make shows of force or belligerence, to adopt a monk-like posture – but he remembered everything.
Unable to play and enjoy himself like a normal boy, Ieyasu studied constantly and was certainly one of the most educated generals of the age.
At the age of 13, the traditional year of coming-of-age for Japanese boys, the Imagawa married him to a daughter of a senor Imagawa Clan retainer, and then released him to return to Mikawa as its ruler.
The 13-year-old Ieyasu had not been home since he was five years old.
***
OUTLYING THE ODA/IMAGAWA WAR
“Who could have predicted Oda Nobunaga’s daring raid at Okehazama? Certainly not Imagawa Yoshimoto, who lost his head there… to be frank, I was surprised too. But surprise indicates you had not thought things through well beforehand. Whenever you are surprised, you must learn from it – and never be surprised in the same way again.”
Now released, Ieyasu joined the Imagawa war coalition against the Oda.
After some initial skirmishes and maneuvers, in 1560 the warlord Imagawa Yoshimoto marched 25,000 troops into Oda lands.
This was almost certainly going to be the end of the Oda Clan; they had less than 3,000 defenders, outnumbered at least 8-to-1. Meanwhile, Yoshimoto was strong and seasoned in the prime of his life at the age of 41. Oda Nobunaga was only 26-years-old, and still inexperienced and generally regarded as a fool.
Well, there was a certainly a fool at the Battle of Okehazama – and it wasn’t Nobunaga. As described back in Vantages #2, the young Nobunaga marched around the Imagawa camp in the driving rain, and assaulted Yoshimoto’s headquarters directly, killing the man and many of his senior officers.
In one of the most remarkable turns of fortune in history, the majority of the surviving Imagawa officers and soldiers swore allegiance to Nobunaga, instantly making him a major power in the region.
Ieyasu had been besieging a lesser castle and was not present at the Battle of Okehazama. When he heard the news, he immediately brokered a secret truce with the Oda Clan.
***
SPECIAL FORCES: HATTORI HANZO
“Hidetada, it’s easy to see what’s plain to see. But greatness requires you seeing what’s unseen – you must read the motions of the world and the minds of men. You must also look forwards to what does not exist yet, but should exist, and create those things. In this ability to see and navigate the unseen, Hattori Hanzo was one of the greatest. Without Hanzo, we would have been defeated on at least a half-dozen occasions…”
In the customs of the time, Ieyasu’s family was held hostage by the Imagawa even as he fought for them.
If he had declared his new loyalty to the Oda publicly, his family would likely have been executed to make an example out of him. They were locked away in the Imagawa capital.
This is type of ambiguous and dangerous situation is where the ninja chief Hattori Hanzo shined.
Now, a quick word about ninja if you’re a Westerner – much of the Western movies and media about the samurai era are relatively accurate. Even the Tom Cruise movie is pretty good, and largely period accurate.
With one notable exception – ninja.
Ninja were not ultimate killer-warriors. A ninja facing a samurai in open combat would be cut to pieces.
They had some skill with weapons, of course, but the samurai trained constantly in sword, bow, spear, and horsemanship. A ninja would never, ever willingly take the field in open battle against a samurai.
The ninja were adequate with weapons, of course, but their true talents lay in getting intelligence to assess weak points, and to bring the best possible remedy for driving at the weak point.
Ninja might assault a poorly-guarded caravan carrying supplies or ammunition, but they would never assault a well-defended caravan. They might set fire to the forest or fields adjacent to a castle to produce a distraction, but they would never directly assault a castle. They might assassinate a poorly guarded and complacent samurai lord, but they would never directly attack a well-guarded and alert samurai lord.
Similar to modern-day special forces, ninja required a very rare set of natural talents, developed over years and decades, to flourish. They were highly secretive and very limited in number.
The killed-in-action loss of a single excellent ninja was devastating to a clan; thus, movie scenes were 20 ninja drop down from the rafters and attack a group of armed samurai, a dozen ninja dying in the process, would be beyond foolish. It simply never happened.
Hattori Hanzo came from an illustrious ninja line, the Iga Clan, which was loyal to the Tokugawa.
Hanzo was only one year older than Ieyasu. By all accounts, they went beyond lord-and-vassal and were close friends and confidants. By some accounts, Hanzo – who had been correctly and intensely trained from birth – might have been sort of a mentor to Ieyasu, who learned his lessons of war and battle relatively late, due to the irregular development and training that came as a result of being a hostage for many of his formative years.
In 1562, Hanzo and Ieyasu spotted an opportunity to break from the Imagawa without Ieyasu’s family being executed.
Hanzo led the assault, using a famous Iga Ninja Clan technique called the bakemono-jutsu – the “ghost art” – of making paper lanterns carrying the Imagawa clan crest to gain entry into the Imagawa’s Kaminogo Castle.
The Tokugawa forces having breached the outer defenses through ninja skill, the castle fell quickly and a number of important Imagawa family members were captured. These were traded back to the decimated surviving Imagawa Clan in exchange for Ieyasu’s family.
Tokugawa Ieyasu was now publicly in Oda Nobunaga’s camp, where he would serve loyally until Nobunaga’s premature death due to assassination.
***
SLOWLY AND STEADILY; LIGHTNING STRIKE; CONSOLIDATE
“The history books ever and always celebrate the daring battles, but the wars are won before and after the battles, not during. Battles lead to defeat, not victory. Hidetada, you must learn this. Fighting desperately is not glorious; it means you have already made a mistake and taken an unnecessary gamble.”
After establishing himself in Nobunaga’s camp, Ieyasu’s philosophy and operations were very consistent across his life. His surviving writings and quotes all echo the same themes.
Many samurai warlords would give way to their emotions – greed, hate, love, lust, fear – they would rashly give battle to placate their own emotions, and not thinking of the larger picture.
Ieyasu was different.
He never moved rashly – his time as a hostage had hardened him; he learned to choke down emotions and make rational plans. When he decided on a course of action, it might
take him two to three years to see it through faithfully until the moment was ripe.
But when the time for action came, he would move into the action with the swiftness of a strike of lightning.
And then, once again, return to quietude and consolidation.
Ieyasu’s base was truly built and consolidated far before his most famous battles. From 1560 to 1567, he relentlessly and constantly upgraded and tweaked his soldiers’ armaments, the governance of his land, and reduced or eliminated hostile local opposition like the ikko-ikki insurgent monks.
In this time, he did not do many “daring” things – this part of Ieyasu’s life tends to get glossed over in the history books – but he was able to use many small skirmishes and administrative missions to test which of his retainers were most competent. He rewarded and treated well the most loyal and diligent of his officers, and – perhaps due to having been estranged from the clan as a hostage for many years – he paid less attention to birth rank and seniority, and more to merit. He developed one of the finest corps of officers and retainers in all of Japan.
MACHINA Page 17
