Tokugawa Ieharu (徳川家治) (June 20, 1737 – September 17, 1786) was the tenth ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

'' of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, who held office from 1760 to 1786. His childhood name was Takechiyo (竹千代). Ieharu died in 1786 and given the Buddhist name Shunmyoin and buried at

Kan'ei-ji (also spelled Kan'eiji or Kaneiji) is a Tendai Buddhist temple in Tokyo, Japan, founded in 1625 during the Kan'ei era by Tenkai, in an attempt to emulate the powerful religious center Enryaku-ji, in Kyoto. The main object of worship is .Nihon Re ...

Family

* Father:

Tokugawa Ieshige Tokugawa Ieshige; 徳川家重 (January 28, 1712 – July 13, 1761) was the ninth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. The first son of Tokugawa Yoshimune, his mother was the daughter of Ōkubo Tadanao, known as Osuma no kata. ...

* Mother: Oko no Kata (d. 1728) later Shinshin'in * Wife: Iso no Miya Tomoko (1738–1771) * Concubines: ** Omiyo no Kata ** Ochiho no Kata (1737–1791) later Renkoin ** Oshina no Kata (d. 1778) later Yoren-in * Child: ** Chiyohime (1756–1757) by Tomoko ** Manjuhime (1761–1773) (born by Tomoko but after she died adopted by Ieharu's concubine, Omaki no Kata) ** Tokugawa Takechiyo later Tokugawa Iemoto (1762–1779) born by Ochiho no Kata ** Tokugawa Teijiro (1762–1763) born by Oshina no Kata * Adopted: **

Tokugawa Ienari Tokugawa Ienari ( ja, 徳川家斉, November 18, 1773 – March 22, 1841) was the eleventh and longest-serving ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan who held office from 1787 to 1837.Hall, John Whitney ''et al.'' (1991) ''Early Modern J ...

** Tanehime (1765–1794), daughter of

Tokugawa Munetake was a Japanese samurai of the mid-Edo period, also known as Tayasu Munetake (田安宗武). The first head of the Tayasu branch of the Tokugawa clan, he held daimyō-level income, but was not a daimyō himself, instead having his residence insi ...

and married Tokugawa Harutomi of

Kishū Domain , or , was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is today Wakayama Prefecture, as well as the southern part of Mie Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kii''" in . Kii bordered Ise, Izumi, Kawachi, Shima, and Yamato Prov ...

Events of the Ieharu's ''bakufu''

* ''Tenmei gannen'' (天明元年) or ''Tenmei 1'' (1781): The new era name of ''Tenmei'' (meaning "Dawn") was created to mark the enthronement of

Emperor Kōkaku was the 119th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'')光格天皇 (119)/ref> Kōkaku reigned from 16 December 1780 until his abdication on 7 May 1817 in favor of his son, Empe ...

. The previous era ended and the new one commenced in ''An'ei'' 11, on the 2nd day of the 4th month. According to Nihon Ōdai Ichiran, Ieharu was appointed

Udaijin was a government position in Japan in the late Nara and Heian periods. The position was consolidated in the Taihō Code of 702. The Asuka Kiyomihara Code of 689 marks the initial appearance of the ''udaijin'' in the context of a central administr ...

(Minister of the Right) of the Emperor's Kugyō, which was quite rare and considered a great favour. * ''Tenmei 2'' (1782): Great ''Tenmei'' Famine begins. * ''Tenmei 2'' (1782): An analysis of silver currency in China and Japan ''"Sin sen sen pou (Sin tchuan phou)"'' was presented to the emperor by

Kutsuki Masatsuna , also known as Kutsuki Oki-no kami Minamoto-no Masatsuna, was a hereditary Japanese ''daimyō'' of Oki and Ōmi with holdings in Tanba and Fukuchiyama. His warrior clan was amongst the hereditary vassals of the Tokugawa family (the '' fudai'' ...

(1750–1802), also known as Kutsuki Oki-no kami Minamoto-no Masatsuna, hereditary ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

'' of

Oki Oki or Ōki may refer to: Places *Oki District, Shimane, a district in Shimane Prefecture, Japan *Oki Islands, an archipelago in the Sea of Japan *Oki Province, a former province of Japan *Ōki, Fukuoka, a town in southern Japan *Oki Airport, the ...

and Ōmi with holdings in Tanba and

Fukuchiyama 250px, Fukuchiyama Castle 250px, Fukuchiyama city center is a city in northern Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 76,037 in 36412 households and a population density of 140 persons per km². The total area of ...

-- ''related note at Tenmei 7 below''.Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). ''Annales des empereurs du japon,'' p. 420 * ''Tenmei 3'' (1783):

Mount Asama is an active complex volcano in central Honshū, the main island of Japan. The volcano is the most active on Honshū. The Japan Meteorological Agency classifies Mount Asama as rank A. It stands above sea level on the border of Gunma and Nagano ...

(浅間山, ''Asama-yama'') erupted in Shinano, one of the old provinces of Japan (

Tenmei eruption The Tenmei eruption () was a large eruption of Mount Asama that occurred in 1783 (''Tenmei 3''). This eruption was one of the causes of the Tenmei famine. It is estimated that about 1,500–1,624 people were killed in the eruption. The event is ...

). Japanologist

Isaac Titsingh Isaac Titsingh FRS ( January 1745 – 2 February 1812) was a Dutch diplomat, historian, Japanologist, and merchant.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Isaak Titsingh" in . During a long career in East Asia, Titsingh was a senior official of the ...

's published account of the Asama-yama eruption was the first of its kind in the West (1820). The volcano's devastation makes the Great Tenmei Famine even worse. * ''Tenmei 4'' (1784): Country-wide celebrations in honor of

Kūkai Kūkai (; 27 July 774 – 22 April 835Kūkai was born in 774, the 5th year of the Hōki era; his exact date of birth was designated as the fifteenth day of the sixth month of the Japanese lunar calendar, some 400 years later, by the Shingon sec ...

(also known as Kōbō-Daishi, founder of

Shingon file:Koyasan (Mount Koya) monks.jpg, Shingon monks at Mount Koya is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asia, originally spread from India to China through traveling monks suc ...

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

) who died 950 years earlier. * ''Tenmei 4'' (1784): The son of the ''shōgun''s chief counselor was assassinated inside

Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established the ...

. The comparatively young ''

wakadoshiyori The ', or "Junior Elders", were high government officials in the Edo period Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867). The position was established around 1633, but appointments were irregular until 1662. The four to six ''wakadoshiyori'' we ...

'', , was the son of the senior ''wakadoshiyori'' Tanuma Tonomo-no-kami Okitsugu. The younger Tanuma was killed in front of his father as both were returning to their ''norimono'' after a meeting of the Counselors of State had broken up. The involvement of senior figures in the ''

bakufu , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

'' was suspected; however, none but the lone assassin himself,

Sano Masakoto , nicknamed was a Japanese samurai, a hatamoto guard of Edo Castle, who gained his fame by killing the unpopular ''wakadoshiyori'' in March 1784 in the castle. History On March 24th, 1784, in Edo castle, Sano shouted three times "remember", ...

, was punished. The result was that Tanuma-initiated, liberalizing reforms within the ''bakufu'' and relaxation the strictures of ''

sakoku was the Isolationism, isolationist Foreign policy of Japan, foreign policy of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate under which, for a period of 265 years during the Edo period (from 1603 to 1868), relations and trade between Japan and other countri ...

'' were blocked. * ''Tenmei 6'', on the 8th day of the 9th month (September 17, 1786): Death of Tokugawa Ieharu. He is buried in Edo. * ''Tenmei 7'' (1787):

published '' Seiyō senpu'' (''Notes on Western Coinage''), with plates showing European and colonial currency – ''related note at Tenmei 2 above''.Screech, T. (2000). ''Shogun's Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States, 1760–1829'', pp. 123, 125.– see online image of 2 adjacent pages from library collection of Kyoto University of Foreign Studies and Kyoto Junior College of Foreign Languages

Eras of Ieharu's ''bakufu''

The years in which Ieharu was ''shōgun'' are more specifically identified by more than one

era name A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin ''regnum'' meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year of ...

or ''

nengō The , also known as , is the first of the two elements that identify years in the Japanese era calendar scheme. The second element is a number which indicates the year number within the era (with the first year being ""), followed by the literal ...

''. * ''

Hōreki , also known as Horyaku, was a after '' Kan'en'' and before ''Meiwa''. The period spanned the years from October 1751 through June 1764. The reigning emperor and empress were and .Titsingh, Isaac. (1834 ''Annales des empereurs du japon'', p. 41 ...

'' (1751–1764) * ''

Meiwa was a after '' Hōreki'' and before '' An'ei.'' This period spanned the years from June 1764 through November 1772. The reigning empress and emperor were and . Change of era * 1764 : The era name became ''Meiwa'' (meaning "Bright Harmony") b ...

'' (1764–1772) * ''

An'ei was a after ''Meiwa'' and before ''Tenmei.'' This period spanned the years November 1772 through March 1781. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * 1772 : The era name was changed to ''An'ei'' (meaning "peaceful eternity") to mark t ...

'' (1772–1781) * ''

Tenmei is a Japanese era name (年号, ''nengō'', literally "years name") for the years between the An'ei Era and before the Kansei Era, from April 1781 through January 1789. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1781 : The new era name of Tenme ...

'' (1781–1789)

Ancestry

Notes

References

Hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gr ...

, John Whitney. (1955) ''Tanuma Okitsugu: Forerunner of Modern Japan.'' Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

. * Screech, Timon. (2000). ''Shogun's Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States, 1760–1829.'' London: Reaktion Books. * Screech, Timon. (2006). ''Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822.'' London:

RoutledgeCurzon Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

. * Titsingh, Isaac. (1822). ''Illustrations of Japan.'' London: Ackerman. * Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). iyun-sai_Rin-siyo/Hayashi_Gahō,_1652.html" ;"title="Hayashi_Gahō.html" ;"title="iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō">iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652">Hayashi_Gahō.html" ;"title="iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō">iyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652 ''Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou
Annales des empereurs du Japon.''
Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. * Totman, Conrad. (1967). ''Politics in the Tokugawa bakufu, 1600–1843''. Cambridge:

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tokugawa, Ieharu 1737 births 1786 deaths 18th-century shōguns Tokugawa shōguns Tokugawa clan