was one of the most favored and most successful military commanders serving

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

in the late-

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

. He is regarded as one of the Four Guardians of the Tokugawa (''Tokugawa-Shitennō''). along with

Honda Tadakatsu , also called Honda Heihachirō (本多平八郎) was a Japanese samurai, general and daimyo of the late Sengoku through early Edo periods, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu. Honda Tadakatsu was one of the Tokugawa Four Heavenly Kings along with Ii N ...

Ii Naomasa was a general under the Sengoku period ''daimyō'', and later ''shōgun'', Tokugawa Ieyasu.Sakakibara Yasumasa was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the late Sengoku period through early Edo period, who served the Tokugawa clan. As one of the Tokugawa family's foremost military commanders, he was considered one of its Shitennō (Tokugawa clan), "Four Guardian K ...

Early life

Tadatsugu was born in 1527 to Sakai Tadachika, a hereditary vassal of the

Matsudaira clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of th ...

of Mikawa Province. When Tadatsugu came of age, he first served

's father,

Matsudaira Hirotada was the lord of Okazaki Castle in Mikawa province, Japan during the Sengoku Period of the 16th century. He is best known for being the father of Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Biography Hirotada was the son of Matsudaira ...

. Tadatsugu was the husband of ''princes Usui'' and ''Keyoin'', a sister of both of Ieyasu's parents and hence Ieyasu's uncle-in-law. It is said that after Hirotada's death, in 1551 Tadatsugu served young Ieyasu and led a hostage life in Sunpu.

Service under Ieyasu

In 1558, Tadatsugu accompanied Ieyasu in the

Siege of Terabe The siege of Terabe Castle took place in 1558 in feudal Japan. Terabe Castle was a possession of the Ogasawara clan of Mikawa province. The Siege of Terabe Castle was Matsudaira Motoyasu's first battle, who would later change his name to Tokug ...

, and later in 1560 at the

Siege of Marune The was a battle during the Sengoku period (16th century) of Japan. Marune was a frontier fortress in the possession of Oda Nobunaga. Matsudaira Motoyasu, who was at the time a forced retainer of the Imagawa, captured the fortress as part of ...

against

Oda clan The is a Japanese samurai family who were daimyo and an important political force in the unification of Japan in the mid-16th century. Though they had the climax of their fame under Oda Nobunaga and fell from the spotlight soon after, several ...

. In 1563, in the Mikawa

Ikkō-ikki were rebellious or autonomous groups of people that were formed in several regions of Japan in the 15th-16th centuries; backed up by the power of the Jōdo Shinshū sect of Buddhism, they opposed the rule of governors or ''daimyō''. Mainly con ...

uprising, Tadatsugu faithfully followed Ieyasu while many of the

Sakai Clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Nitta branch of the Minamoto clan, who were in turn descendants of Emperor Seiwa. Serata (Nitta) Arichika, a samurai of the 14th century, was the common ancestor of both the Sakai ...

contributed to the uprising. After 1565, when Ieyasu broke off his ties with the

Imagawa clan was a Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Seiwa Genji by way of the Kawachi Genji. It was a branch of the Minamoto clan by the Ashikaga clan. Origins Ashikaga Kuniuji, grandson of Ashikaga Yoshiuji, established himself in the ...

, Tadatsugu was given command of the

Yoshida Castle is a Japanese castle located in Toyohashi, southeastern Aichi Prefecture, Japan. At the end of the Edo period, Yoshida Castle was home to the Inaba clan, ''daimyō'' of Tateyama Domain. The castle was also known as , and later as Toyohashi Cast ...

in eastern Mikawa (present-day

Toyohashi is a city in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 377,453 in 160,516 households and a population density of 1,400 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . By area, Toyohashi was Aichi Prefecture's second-la ...

). By 1567, the majority of ''daimyō'' forces in the Tokugawa armies were organized in two divisions, each with a separate commander. Tadatsugu was placed over the forces of 18 Tokugawa ''daimyō''-vassals and his counterpart,

Ishikawa Kazumasa was a Japanese notable retainer under Tokugawa Ieyasu, who served him since childhood, when they were both hostages under the Imagawa in 1551. Biography Kazumasa, also accompanied Ieyasu in the Siege of Terabe 1558, and later at Siege of Mar ...

, was given command over the forces of 13 ''daimyō''-vassals. Tadatsugu's qualities of proven loyalty, reliability, and leadership are demonstrably illustrated in this degree of delegated powers and authority. Sakai Tadatsugu's drum

In 1572, during the

Battle of Mikatagahara The was a battle of the Sengoku period of Japan fought between Takeda Shingen and Tokugawa Ieyasu in Mikatagahara, Tōtōmi Province on 25 January 1573. Shingen attacked Ieyasu at the plain of Mikatagahara north of Hamamatsu during his cam ...

, Tadatsugu secured the Tokugawa's right flank, seeing his troops being badly beaten by the opposing

Takeda is a Japanese family name.1990 Census Name Files< ...

forces; and when Ieyasu and his allies retreated to

Hamamatsu Castle is a replica ''hirayama''-style Japanese castle. It was the seat of various ''fudai daimyō'' who ruled over Hamamatsu Domain, Tōtōmi Province, in what is now central Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunat ...

, Tadatsugu participated in the ruse which mitigated the effects of Takeda victory in the field; and the Takeda forces withdrew. In 1575, during the

Battle of Nagashino The took place in 1575 near Nagashino Castle on the plain of Shitaragahara in the Mikawa Province of Japan. Takeda Katsuyori attacked the castle when Okudaira Sadamasa rejoined the Tokugawa, and when his original plot with Oga Yashiro for taki ...

, he led a successful night attack against the Takeda along with

Kanamori Nagachika was a Japanese samurai who lived from the Sengoku period into the early Edo period. He was the first ruler of the Kanamori clan and served as a retainer of the Oda, Toyotomi, and Tokugawa clans. Later in his life, he also became a ''daimyō' ...

. In 1578, Tadatsugu's son,

Sakai Ietsugu is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and inclu ...

(1564–1619), took over his father's role as castellan of Yoshida Castle. The ''ie-'' in the beginning of Ietsugu's name was a special honor bestowed by Tokugawa Ieyasu, a special reward for special vassals, allowing them to use one of the ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

'' from his ''Nanori'' name.Plutschow, Herbert. (1995)
"Japan's Name Culture: The Significance of Names in a Religious, Political and Social Context'', p.53.
/ref> In 1584, during the

Battle of Komaki and Nagakute The was a series of battles in 1584 between the forces of Hashiba Hideyoshi (who would become Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1586) and the forces of Oda Nobukatsu and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Hideyoshi and Ieyasu had both served Oda Nobunaga and had not previou ...

, he successfully turned back a move by

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

forces against

Kiyosu Castle is a Japanese castle located in Kiyosu, eastern Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It is noted for its association with the rise to power of the Sengoku period warlord, Oda Nobunaga. The kanji in the name of the castle was written as 清須城. The curren ...

, which was led by Toyotomi commander

Mori Nagayoshi was a samurai officer under the Oda clan following Japan's 16th-century Sengoku period, and the older brother of the famous Mori Ranmaru. His wife Ikeda Sen, was the daughter of Ikeda Tsuneoki. Nagayoshi was known to have such a bad temper and ...

. In 1590, during the Odawara Campaign, Tadatsugu was ordered to accompany

Tokugawa Hidetada was the second ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was bo ...

, Ieyasu's son and heir, to

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

, where he served as hostage for Ieyasu's loyalty to the Toyotomi during that campaign. After the battle, Hideyoshi ordered to Tokugawa clan to relocate from their ancestral holdings to the

Kantō region The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Slight ...

. Tadatsugu went into retirement, but his son Ietsugu received a 30,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

'' '' fudai''

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a for ...

at Usui, in

Shimōsa Province was a province of Japan in the area modern Chiba Prefecture, and Ibaraki Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Shimōsa''" in . It lies to the north of the Bōsō Peninsula (房総半島), whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from ...

, and Tadasugu accompanied them there.

Death

Tadatsugu died in

in the winter of 1596. After Tadatsugu's death, the Sakai clan continued to prosper. In 1604, his descendants moved to

Takasaki Domain 270px, Surviving yagura of Takasaki Castle, headquarters of Takasaki Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Kōzuke Province (modern-day Gunma Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Takasaki Cas ...

(50,000 ''koku'') in

Kōzuke Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today Gunma Prefecture. Kōzuke bordered by Echigo, Shinano, Musashi and Shimotsuke Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, Kōzuke was ran ...

; in 1616, they relocated to

Takata Domain Takata may refer to: * Takata Corporation, an automotive parts company based in Japan * Takata District, Hiroshima, a district located in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan * Takata, Fukuoka, a town located in Miike District, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan * ...

(100,000 ''koku'') in

Echigo Province was an old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen, Iwashiro, Kōzuke, Shinano, and Etchū Provinces. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Echigo''" in . It corresponds today to Niigata ...

; in 1619, they were transferred to

Matsushiro Domain 300px, Matsushiro Castle Part of the Matsushiro domain's Edo estate, relocated to Kamakura and used as a hall at Ryuko-ji Temple was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. It is located in Shinano Province, Hon ...

Shinano Province or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture. Shinano bordered on Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...

; and then, from 1622 through to 1868, they were installed at Tsurugaoka Domain (120,000 ''koku'') in

Dewa Province was a province of Japan comprising modern-day Yamagata Prefecture and Akita Prefecture, except for the city of Kazuno and the town of Kosaka. Dewa bordered on Mutsu and Echigō Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History Early peri ...

. The head of the Sakai clan was ennobled as a "Count" in the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

Inokiri sword

In 1560, during that time, it is said Tadatsugu killed a

boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is no ...

with his katana, earning it the name of the ''Inoshishi-giri'' or ''Inokiri'' (猪切 ''the Boar Slayer''). The blade itself was a work of Masazane from the Tegai school of Nara, and a colleague of the famous

Muramasa , commonly known as , was a famous swordsmith who founded the Muramasa school and lived during the Muromachi period (14th to 16th centuries) in Kuwana, Ise Province, Japan (current Kuwana, Mie).Fukunaga, 1993. vol. 5, pp. 166–167. In spite of ...

(or maybe another name for Muramasa himself). Masazane also authored ''Tonbōgiri'' (蜻蛉切 ''the Dragonfly Slayer''), the most famous of the

Three Great Spears of Japan The Three Great Spears of Japan are three individual spears (yari) that were made and crafted by the greatest historical blacksmiths of Japan: # Tonbokiri (蜻蛉切): This spear once wielded by Honda Tadakatsu, one of the great generals of Tokuga ...

(天下三名槍), favourite weapon of

, another one of the Tokugawa Shitennō.

Sakai clan genealogy

The

Sakai clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Nitta branch of the Minamoto clan, who were in turn descendants of Emperor Seiwa. Serata (Nitta) Arichika, a samurai of the 14th century, was the common ancestor of both the Sakai ...

originated in 14th century

Mikawa Province was an old province in the area that today forms the eastern half of Aichi Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Mikawa''" in . Its abbreviated form name was . Mikawa bordered on Owari, Mino, Shinano, and Tōtōmi Provinces. Mik ...

,Appert, Georges ''et al.'' (1888)
''Ancien Japon,'' p. 76.
/ref> claiming descent from

Minamoto Arichika was one of the surnames bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the Imperial House of Japan, imperial family who were excluded from the line of succession and demoted into the ranks of the nobility from 1192 to 1333. The practice was m ...

. Arichika had two sons: one of them, Yasuchika, took the name Matsudaira; and the younger, Chikauji, took the name Sakai.Papinot, Jacques. (2003)
''Nobiliare du Japon'' -- Sakai, pp. 50
51; Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon.'' (in French/German).

Sakai Hirochika is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and inclu ...

, who was the son of Chikauji, likewise had two sons, and their descendants gave rise to the two main branches of the Sakai clan.Papinot
p. 50.
/ref> Tadatsugu was heir to the senior branch of the clan.

Early life

Service under Ieyasu

Death

Inokiri sword

Sakai clan genealogy

References

Further reading