Japan’s 10 Most Stunning Samurai Warriors
4. Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川 家康)
Tokugawa Ieyasu is best remembered for being the founder of the first shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan. The shōgun ruled a combined Japan following the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until Imperial rule was returned in 1868 during the period known as the Meiji Restoration.
Ieyasu seized power in 1600, but wasn't appointed as shōgun until 1603. While he did abdicate his office in 1605, he remained in power until he passed away in 1616. Ieyasu is one of only three unifiers in Japanese history alongside Lord Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Long before becoming shōgun, Ieyasu was a brilliant military commander, but also a politician in the making. He readily allied himself with powerful men to elevate his rank through successive military conquests.
After Nobunaga's assassination, Ieyasu began a new campaign to claim the territories open for conquest. He succeeded again and again by taking control of the lands he would later unify within the Tokugawa shogunate. When he succeeded and was named shōgun by Emperor Go-Yōzei, he ushered in the Edo period revolving around the last Feudal Government to exist in Japan prior to the reinstatement of the Emperor's imperium more than 250 years later.