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Takugawa Ieyasu's territory extended throughout most of Japan. The "Old Badger," exhibited extreme patience, with a strategic brilliance, of knowing when to seize the exact moment to advance his leadership. After Hideyoshi died, Takugawa Ieyasu mobilized his troops, and defeated the opposing army at The Great Battle of Sekigahara. By defeating the Hideyori loyalists, and other western rivals, Ieyasu achieved almost unlimited power and wealth. In 1603 Takugawa Ieyasu was appointed Shogun, by the Emporer, and established his government in Edo. He then, brought the country under tight control, and cleverly redistributed the land among the daimyo (warrior lords). They kept the merchants and peasants under control in a feudal system, where strict rules and regulations kept everyone in their place. Takugawa Ieyasu, isolated Japan from the Western World, by expelling foreign missionaries and merchants. A brilliant strategist, he surrounded himself with capable, trustworthy people. Next, he eliminated the enemy, by slaughtering 100,000 threatening his rule. With the Fall of Osaka Castle, he established a dynasty that would last through the ages. As Japanese culture closed to outside influence, Japan grew inward, with intensive internal development, becoming a secret world unto itself, resulting in extreme Nationalism. This allowed the Tokugawa Shoguns to rule Japan for over 250 remarkable years. View this wonderful, marvelously informative documentary with your children, and then treat yourselves to the wonderful mini-series classic, Shogun, starring the world's greatest actor, Richard Chamberlain. It is one of American televisions best efforts of all time, based on James Clavell's wonderful novel. Clavell's novel is a fictional treatise, based on factual history. It is grand fun to have your children fall in love with Shogun's fictional characters, then correlate them to the actual historical heroes, they represent. Share their delight, when they discover Pilot-Major John Blackthorne was William Adams, Lord Toranaga was Takugawa Ieyasu, etc. Your children will get a marvelous education on 17th Century Feudal Japan, and be exposed to a magnificent, television classic, that has survived the decades......SHOGUN! by Judith Crocker
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Richard Chamberlain effectively narrates, a most informational, and inspiring, documentary of Japan: Memoirs Of A Secret Empire. He takes you on a fascinating journey, to feudal Japan in the 1600's, where a flowering culture, with poetic rituals, overwhelmed with tremendous power struggles, and a Samurai warrior, by the name of Takugawa Ieyasu, emerges, and develops a regime so vast, and powerful, it endures for over 250 years. The Samurai, who ruled by birthright and the sword, became captive to the turmoil of civil war. It was a time of great mistrust and rampant treachery. Jesuit missionaries came seeking lost souls, disturbing the religious order, and Portuguese merchants, with their own greedy agendas, searched out new ports for trade.