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25-614: Yoshimune was not the son of any former shōgun . Rather, he was a member of a cadet branch of the Tokugawa clan . Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, well aware of the extinction of the Minamoto line in 1219, had realized that his direct descendants might die out, leaving the Tokugawa family at risk of extinction. Thus, while his son Tokugawa Hidetada was the second shōgun , he selected three other sons to establish

50-618: A cadet branch of Mecklenburg and Lippe(-Biesterfeld). In the Commonwealth realms, the male-line descendants of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh are cadet members of the House of Glücksburg . It was a risk that cadet branches maintaining legal heirs could sink in status because shrunken wealth that was too meagre to survive the shifting political upheavals (legal mechanisms in factionalism or revolution of attainder , capital offences and show trials ) as much as unpopularity or distance from

75-402: A show of status and defending their lands when they were absent. The Kyōhō Reforms relieved this burden somewhat in an effort to gain support for the shogunate from the daimyōs . The shogunate's interventions were only partly successful. Intervening factors like famine, floods and other disasters exacerbated some of the conditions which the shōgun intended to ameliorate. This reform movement

100-651: The gosanke , hereditary houses which would provide a shōgun if there were no male heir. The three gosanke were the Owari , Kii , and Mito branches. Yoshimune was from the branch of Kii. The founder of the Kii house was one of Tokugawa Ieyasu's sons, Tokugawa Yorinobu . Ieyasu appointed him daimyō of Kii. Yorinobu's son, Tokugawa Mitsusada , succeeded him. Two of Mitsusada's sons succeeded him, and when they died, Tokugawa Yoshimune, Mitsusada's fourth son, became daimyō of Kii in 1705. Later, he became shōgun . Yoshimune

125-639: The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (1890). In other cases, a junior branch came to eclipse more senior lines in rank and power, e.g. the Electors and Kings of Saxony who were a younger branch of the House of Wettin than the Grand Dukes of Saxe-Weimar . A still more junior branch of the Wettins , headed by the rulers of the small Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , would, through diplomacy or marriage in

150-655: The Kyōhō period (July 1716 – April 1736). The reforms were aimed at making the Tokugawa shogunate financially solvent, and to some degree, to improve its political and social security. Because of the tensions between Confucian ideology and the economic reality of Tokugawa Japan (Confucian principles that money was defiling versus the necessity for a cash economy), Yoshimune found it necessary to shelve certain Confucian principles that were hampering his reform process. The Kyōhō Reforms included an emphasis on frugality, as well as

175-672: The Kyōhō Reforms . Yoshimune also tried to resurrect the Japanese swordsmithing tradition. Since the beginning of the Edo period, it was quite difficult for smiths to make a living and to be supported by daimyōs , because of the lack of funds. But Yoshimune was quite unhappy with this situation, causing a decline of skills. And so, he gathered smiths from daimyō fiefs for a great contest, in 1721. The four winners who emerged were all great masters, Mondo no Shō Masakiyo (主水正正清), Ippei Yasuyo (一平安代),

200-533: The 19th and 20th centuries, obtain or consort and sire the royal crowns of, successively, Belgium , Portugal , Bulgaria and the Commonwealth realms . Also, marriage to cadet males of the Houses of Oldenburg (Holstein-Gottorp), Polignac , and Bourbon-Parma brought those dynasties patrilineally to the thrones of Russia , Monaco , and Luxembourg, respectively. The Dutch royal house has, at different times, been

225-521: The 20th day of the 5th month of the year Kan'en -4 (July 12, 1751). His Buddhist name was Yutokuin and he was buried in Kan'ei-ji . The years in which Yoshimune was shōgun are more specifically identified by more than one era name or nengō . Cadet branch A cadet branch consists of the male-line descendants of a monarch 's or patriarch 's younger sons ( cadets ). In the ruling dynasties and noble families of much of Europe and Asia ,

250-539: The 4th generation Nanki Shigekuni (南紀重国) and Nobukuni Shigekane (信国重包). But it did not work well to arouse interest, quite like tournaments in modern Japan. Yoshimune also ordered the compilation of Kyōhō Meibutsu Chō (享保名物帳), listing the best and most famous swords all over Japan. This book allowed the beginning of the Shinshintō period of Nihontō history, and indirectly contributed to the Gassan school, who protected

275-464: The Nihontō tradition before and after the surrender of Japan. Although foreign books had been strictly forbidden since 1640, Yoshimune relaxed the rules in 1720, starting an influx of foreign books and their translations into Japan, and initiating the development of Western studies, or rangaku . Yoshimune's relaxation of the rules may have been influenced by a series of lectures delivered before him by

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300-452: The astronomer and philosopher Nishikawa Joken . Engravement or official sanction of Chinese medical volume Taiping Huìmín Héjì Júfāng 『太平恵民和剤局方』 appears to have happened around this time. In 1745, Yoshimune retired, took the title Ōgosho and left his public post to his oldest son. The title is the one that Tokugawa Ieyasu took on retirement in favor of his son Hidetada, who in turn took the same title on his retirement. Yoshimune died on

325-715: The crown of the senior line, e.g. the Bourbon Counts of Vendôme mounted the throne of France (after civil war) in 1593; the House of Savoy-Carignan succeeded to the kingdoms of Sardinia (1831) and Italy (1861); the Counts Palatine of Zweibrücken obtained the Palatine Electorate of the Rhine (1799) and the Kingdom of Bavaria (1806); and a deposed Duke of Nassau was restored to sovereignty in

350-464: The equal distribution of the family's holdings among male members was eventually apt to so fragment the inheritance as to render it too small to sustain the descendants at the socio-economic level of their forefather. Moreover, brothers and their descendants sometimes quarreled over their allocations, or even became estranged. While agnatic primogeniture became a common way of keeping the family's wealth intact and reducing familial disputes, it did so at

375-403: The expense of younger sons and their descendants. Both before and after a state legal default of inheritance by primogeniture, younger brothers sometimes vied with older brothers to be chosen as their father's heir or, after the choice was made, sought to usurp the elder's birthright. In such cases, primary responsibility for promoting the family's prestige, aggrandizement, and fortune fell upon

400-427: The family's major assets ( realm , titles , fiefs , property and income) have historically been passed from a father to his firstborn son in what is known as primogeniture ; younger sons, the cadets, inherited less wealth and authority (such as a small appenage ) to pass on to future generations of descendants. In families and cultures in which that was not the custom or law, such as the feudal Holy Roman Empire ,

425-542: The finances. What made things worse was that in 1707, a tsunami destroyed and killed many in the coastal areas of Kii Province. Yorimasa did his best to try to stabilize things in Kii, but relied on leadership from Edo. In 1712, Shogun Ienobu died, and was succeeded by his son, the boy- shōgun Tokugawa Ietsugu . Yorimasa decided that he could not rely on conservative Confucianists like Arai Hakuseki in Edo and did what he could to stabilize Kii Domain. Before he could implement changes, shōgun Ietsugu died in early 1716. He

450-437: The formation of merchant guilds that allowed greater control and taxation. The ban on Western books (minus those relating or referring to Christianity) was lifted to encourage the import of Western knowledge and technology. The alternate attendance ( sankin-kōtai ) rules were relaxed. This policy was a burden on daimyōs , due to the cost of maintaining two households and moving people and goods between them, while maintaining

475-514: The reigning line. Ky%C5%8Dh%C5%8D Reforms The Kyōhō Reforms ( 享保の改革 , kyōhō no kaikaku ) were an array of economic and cultural policies introduced by the Tokugawa shogunate between 1722–1730 during the Edo period to improve its political and social status. These reforms were instigated by the eighth Tokugawa shōgun of Japan , Tokugawa Yoshimune , encompassing the first 20 years of his shogunate. The name Kyōhō Reforms, refers to

500-467: The rites of passage and took the name Tokugawa Shinnosuke (徳川 新之助). In 1705, when Shinnosuke was just 21 years old, his father Mitsusada and two older brothers died. Thus, the ruling shōgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi appointed him daimyō of Kii. He took the name Tokugawa Yorimasa (頼方) and began to administer the province. Nonetheless, great financial debt which the domain had owed to the shogunate since his father's and even grandfather's time continued to burden

525-548: The second son of his successor Ieshige, became the founders of the Tayasu, Hitotsubashi and Shimizu lines. Unlike the gosanke, they did not rule domains . Still, they remained prominent until the end of Tokugawa rule, and some later shōguns were chosen from the Hitotsubashi line. Yoshimune is known for his financial reforms. He dismissed the conservative adviser Arai Hakuseki and he began what would come to be known as

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550-510: The senior branch for future generations. A cadet, having less means, was not expected to produce a family. If a cadet chose to raise a family, its members were expected to maintain the family's social status by avoiding derogation , but could pursue endeavors too demeaning or too risky for the senior branch, such as emigration to another sovereign's realm, engagement in commerce, or a profession such as law, religion, academia, military service or government office. Some cadet branches came to inherit

575-469: Was born in 1684 in the rich Kii Province , a region which was then ruled by his father, Tokugawa Mitsusada. Yoshimune's childhood name was Tokugawa Genroku (徳川 源六). At that time, his second cousin Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was ruling in Edo as shōgun . Kii was a rich region of over 500,000 koku , but it was still in debt and had a lot to pay back to the shogunate. In 1697, Genroku underwent

600-489: Was closely related to the Tokugawa shōguns . His grandfather, Tokugawa Yorinobu, was a brother of second shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada , while Yoshimune's father, Tokugawa Mitsusada, was a first cousin of third shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu . Yoshimune thus was a second cousin to the fourth and fifth shōguns (both brothers) Tokugawa Ietsuna and Tokugawa Tsunayoshi , as well as a second cousin to Tokugawa Tsunashige , whose son became shōgun Tokugawa Ienobu . Tokugawa Yoshimune

625-474: Was only seven years old, and died without an heir. The bakufu thus selected the next shōgun from one of the cadet lines. Yoshimune succeeded to the post of the shōgun in Shōtoku -1 (1716). His term as shōgun lasted for 30 years. He is considered among the best of the Tokugawa shōguns . Yoshimune established the gosankyō to augment (or perhaps to replace) the gosanke . Two of his sons, together with

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