Iehiro Tokugawa: Becoming the 19th Head of the Tokugawa Main Family

I feel as though there hasn't been any particular change in my feelings.

Since I have just become the head, I am trying to attend all the memorial services for successive generations myself from this year through next year, but there are so many that it is quite a task. The unveiling at Zojoji Temple on January 29th was the culmination of various events for becoming the head. Originally, I only served as the priest at the annual grand festivals of Nikko Toshogu and Kunozan Toshogu.

In terms of difficulty, there is the management of the Tokugawa Memorial Foundation, which my father, Tsunenari Tokugawa, founded in 2003, the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Edo Shogunate. I have been serving as the chairman since 2021, but having become the head of the family, the weight of responsibility falls on me once again. Until now, we have focused on lending items to exhibitions to increase the foundation's recognition, but for the next three years or so, I want to focus on strengthening our foundation, such as conducting a complete survey of the foundation's collection.

Professor Akira Hayami of Keio served as a selection committee member from the foundation's inception for the "Tokugawa Prize," awarded for outstanding achievements in early modern Japanese history research, and the "Tokugawa Encouragement Prize," a scholarship to support the completion of promising doctoral dissertations in early modern Japanese history. Currently, Professor Kazui Tashiro serves as a selection committee member for both prizes and as a director of the foundation.

Since writing has always been the core of my work, I would like to concentrate on that. My experience struggling with my studies while at Keio became a good catalyst for me to keep thinking about economics, and I have published several books on the subject. From now on, I want to shift toward historical research, but the field of history is so demanding that many researchers dedicate their entire lives to it without reaching a conclusion. My father also tried to explain what the Edo period was like in works such as "The Genes of Edo," but I first want to write about the history of the Tokugawa ducal family after the Meiji Restoration. Another goal is to solve the "mystery" of the Battle of Sekigahara.

Furthermore, as a long-term mission of the foundation, we aim to spread a more accurate understanding of the Edo period both domestically and internationally. The ideal would be for it to be described correctly even in world history textbooks for middle and high schools in various countries.

It was exactly 250 years from the fall of Osaka Castle to the Choshu War (Choshu Expedition). The stability of the reign during this period is in contrast to European countries, which modernized while being constantly at war.

Regarding the economy of the Edo period, it is as Professor Ioku says, but on the other hand, the image of national isolation is strong, and there is a misunderstanding that the economy was stagnant. In reality, trade was active. While it is true that Japanese people were prohibited from traveling abroad, diplomacy certainly existed, and above all, the Shogunate and the various domains were eager to collect and analyze overseas information.

Among the knowledge and information collected by the Shogunate, many were of Western origin, but I believe information in Classical Chinese was even more important. Especially after the Opium War, various countries began to establish legations in Tianjin, and the Qing Dynasty was forced to engage in diplomacy with the Great Powers. Through the lens of the Qing Dynasty, the true intentions of the Western powers were visible.

What I have been emphasizing recently is that the fact that Ieyasu Tokugawa opened the Shogunate in Edo was revolutionary in itself. He carried out massive engineering projects to divert the Tone River, performed land reclamation, dramatically increased arable land, and established a water supply network, performing unprecedented infrastructure development. Since the founding of the nation, what is now the Kinki region had been the center of Japan, so the idea of making the Kanto/Edo region—which was nothing more than a frontier—the new center was a tremendous vision.

Another point, though there is no clear data, is that the Shogunate likely had a policy of moving the population to the Kanto and Tohoku regions at that time.

It makes more sense if you consider that everything was done this way, such as moving the Sakai family, the most loyal vassals, to Yamagata/Shonai, which originally had no connection to the Tokugawa family, or moving the Satake family, a prestigious clan of the Takeda Genji, from Hitachi to Akita. In the case of the Satake family, the strategy was to increase the recognition of the frontier land of Akita in the Kinai region, the economic center, by moving the prestigious Satake name, which was well-known in Kyoto, to Akita.

It is true that I wear traditional robes and serve as a priest at the annual grand festivals of Nikko Toshogu and Kunozan Toshogu every year, but the Shogun family is, shall we say, nationwide (laughs), and we have relationships with Toshogu shrines across the country.

For example, there is a Toshogu in Hiroshima as well, and in 2015, its grand festival, the "Tori-go-sairei," was held for the first time in 200 years, and I served as the priest. The previous time was in 1965, the year I was born, but at that time the memory of the atomic bomb was still vivid. Before that was World War I, and before that, the Shogunate's main camp for the Choshu War was placed in Hiroshima; for 200 years, this festival had not been held.

Mr. Asano also holds a curator's license and was of great help during the "Tori-go-sairei." Why did the Asano family become the lords of Hiroshima? I think considering this reveals the essence of the Edo period.

Actually, I believe the Tokugawa Shogunate was consistently a "minority ruling party." This is because, in the early Edo period, there was likely a strong voice calling for a third invasion of Korea. It wasn't just people wanting peace; among the samurai class, there may have been a strong desire for war. This was likely especially true in Western Japan, where many people had actually crossed over to the Korean Peninsula to fight.

War was perceived as an opportunity for advancement. There is a high possibility that anger was swirling in Western Japan because the "Tokugawa Peace" made advancement impossible.

On the other hand, Hiroshima is strategically important. Before the Edo period, the Japanese economy was, in essence, about delivering goods from the continent to the Kinki region. The Seto Inland Sea is the main artery of such a Japanese economy. Hiroshima Castle, which commands that artery, was built by Terumoto Mori and completed in 1590, but given its strategic importance, I suspect it was built not just with Hideyoshi's permission, but by his command. And at that point, Hideyoshi was already thinking about the invasion of Korea.

Asano Nagamasa, the founder of the Asano family, was the brother-in-law of Hideyoshi's wife, Nene (Kita-no-Mandokoro), but he had a very good relationship with Ieyasu. I believe the arrangement was to entrust Hiroshima—where memories of the Korean invasion were strong and resentment toward the Tokugawa family was high—to a daimyo with such high "Toyotomi credentials."

When I looked into it, it wasn't specifically the Jodo Shu sect, but Pure Land Buddhism (Jodo-kyo). Jodo Shu is a Japanese Buddhist denomination founded by Honen Shonin. Pure Land Buddhism is the entire group of denominations that follow the Buddhist thought behind Jodo Shu, and it is spread throughout Asia.

In Southeast Asia, most Buddhism is Hinayana (Theravada) Buddhism, but Vietnam has a strong Chinese influence and a Mahayana Buddhist culture.

By the way, the influence of Confucianism is also very strong. I was surprised to see that at my wife's family home, they properly perform New Year's Eve rituals on the night of the lunar New Year.

Fuyuko-san is from the Tayasu Tokugawa family, so there is a strong sense of affinity. The 16th head of the main family was adopted from the Tayasu family.

I was a returnee student, and my parents pushed me by saying, "Since you have the advantage of being able to speak English, it might be good to try taking university entrance exams," so I applied to various places.

I was accepted to both Keio and Waseda, and people around me said, "Keio suits you," so I decided to enroll. Looking back, I had no initiative at all (laughs).

At that time, I had no interest in Japanese history and was taught by Professor Makoto Terao, who specialized in Western economic history.

That's right. During my student days, I read sci-fi, horror, and fantasy enthusiastically, but now I find reading history books much more interesting. No matter how grand a story you construct in sci-fi or fantasy, it cannot match real history in terms of brilliance, misery, irony, or unexpectedness.

Japan during my student days was enjoying stability and prosperity, and was full of affirmation of the status quo and optimism. I felt a sense of discomfort and constraint in such an environment, which might be why I immersed myself in sci-fi and fantasy, but I gradually realized that reality is far more full of surprises.

I simply have to watch it this year (laughs). The first episode had a public viewing in Okazaki City, Ieyasu's birthplace, and I watched it there. I think even people from countries who don't know about Japan can enjoy it.

I think Jun Matsumoto, who plays Ieyasu, is very good in his portrayal of a somewhat unreliable character. It seems close to the reality. The depiction of the Matsudaira and Tokugawa vassals—caring deeply for their lord Ieyasu while speaking their minds bluntly—is also close to reality, I think. I believe it was an atmosphere like a close-knit soccer team.

Hoping to increase the foundation's recognition, I started preparing as soon as the broadcast of "What Will You Do, Ieyasu?" was announced, and started the YouTube channel the year before last.

As for the metaverse, ever since computer graphics (CG) appeared, I had been thinking about whether the town of Edo could be reconstructed in 3D. This was due to the fact that among the world's major cities, Edo-Tokyo has the fewest traces of its past, and although there are many period films and TV dramas, I have never seen a bird's-eye view of Great Edo.

This project was born from a chance encounter between my long-standing desire and someone who was looking for good material for NFTs and the metaverse. We are aiming for a world-class metaverse from Japan that only Japanese people can create.

I don't have anything as grand as an aspiration. In the post-war era, we are ordinary people, and my father worked hard as an ordinary office worker. My way of life is very different from his, but I believe we are the same in that I want to make sure I am a proper Japanese person first. Continuing the family line and operating the foundation are all things that sit upon that foundation.