Minamoto no Yoshishige (1135–1202), grandson of
Minamoto no Yoshiie (1041–1108), was the first to take the name of Nitta. He sided with his cousin
Minamoto no Yoritomo against the
Taira clan (1180) and accompanied him to
Kamakura. Nitta Yoshisue, 4th son of Yoshishige, settled at Tokugawa (Kozuke province) and took the name of that place. Their provincial history book did not mention Minamoto clan or Nitta clan. The nominal originator of the
Matsudaira clan was reportedly
Matsudaira Chikauji, who was originally a poor Buddhist monk. He reportedly descended from Nitta Yoshisue in the 8th generation and witnessed the ruin of the Nitta in their war against the
Ashikaga. He settled at Matsudaira (Mikawa province) and was adopted by his wife's family. Their provincial history book claimed that this original clan was Ariwara clan. The lineage as recorded in Tokugawa sources, including the
Tokugawa Jikki (徳川実紀) and
Kansei Chōshū Shokafu (寛政重修諸家譜), was presented as follows: :
Emperor Seiwa :: →
Minamoto no Tsunemoto ::: →
Minamoto no Mitsunaka :::: →
Minamoto no Yorinobu ::::: →
Minamoto no Yoriyoshi :::::: →
Minamoto no Yoshiie ::::::: →
Minamoto no Yoshikuni :::::::: →
Nitta Yoshishige ::::::::: → (Tokugawa/Nitta branch of Kōzuke Province) (Claimed) ::::::::: →
Nitta Yoshiki (4th son, lived in Nitta-sho Tokugawa and called himself Tokugawa) :::::::::: →
Nitta Yoriji (2nd son, named Yashiro Sarada and became the governor of Mikawa) ::::::::::: →
Jiro Noriji :::::::::::: →
Matajiro Ietoki ::::::::::::: →
Yajiro Mitsuyoshi :::::::::::::: →
Masayoshi ::::::::::::::: →
Chikaki :::::::::::::::: →
Arichika :::::::::: → Arichka's son was supposedly Chikauji, which would make him the same as Nobumitsu. Some sources say Arichka was the biological father and Nobumitsu the adoptive father of Chikauji. :::::::::: →
Matsudaira Nobumitsu (c. 1404- c. 1488) ::::::::::: →
Matsudaira Chikauji (jp) (c. 1431-1501) :::::::::::: →
Matsudaira Nagachika (1473-1519) ::::::::::::: →
Matsudaira Nobutada (
jp) (1490-1531) :::::::::::::: →
Matsudaira Kiyoyasu (1511–1535) ::::::::::::::: →
Matsudaira Hirotada (1526– 1549) :::::::::::::::: →
Tokugawa Ieyasu The authenticity of the Tokugawa claim to Minamoto descent remains debated among historians. Genealogical records from the Kamakura and Muromachi periods do not clearly document a continuous line from the Nitta to the Matsudaira, leading some scholars to regard the claim as a politically motivated reconstruction during Ieyasu’s rise to power. Nonetheless, the assertion proved effective in providing Ieyasu with the symbolic authority to assume the title of
Seii Taishōgun, a rank historically limited to descendants of the Seiwa Genji line. In 1603, the Imperial Court officially recognized his Minamoto lineage, allowing him to be styled
Minamoto no Ieyasu (源家康). Matsudaira Nobumitsu (15th century), son of Chikauji, was in charge of
Okazaki Castle, and strengthened the authority of his family in the Mikawa province. Nobumitsu's great-great-grandson
Matsudaira Kiyoyasu made his clan strong, but was assassinated. In 1567, Matsudaira Motonobu—then known as
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542–1616)—grandson of Kiyoyasu, was recognized by
Emperor Ōgimachi as a descendant of
Seiwa Genji; he also started the family name Tokugawa. According to historical documents from the same period, some of the three generations of the Matsudaira clan, including Nobumitsu, took the surname Kamo no Ason (Kamo), and the Matsudaira clan's hollyhock crest also suggests a connection to the Kamo clan, so some have pointed out that they were actually vassals of the Kamo clan. Tokugawa Ieyasu himself signed the letter of assurance to the Suganuma clan in 1561, shortly after independence from the Imagawa clan, as "Minamoto no Motoyasu" ("Suganuma Family Genealogy" and "Documents Possessed by Kunozan Toshogu Shrine") The clan rose to power at the end of the
Sengoku period. as their political influences and territories they controlled expanded during this period, they developed many new offices such as many magistrate official such as
Kōriki Kiyonaga,
Amano Yasukage,
Honda Shigetsugu, and many others, to control their new territories and vassals. In 1566, as Ieyasu declared his independence from the Imagawa clan, he reformed the order of Mikawa province starting with the
Matsudaira clan, after he
pacified Mikawa. This decision was made after he counseled by his senior vassal
Sakai Tadatsugu to abandon their allegiance with the Imagawa clan. He also strengthened his powerbase by creating a military government system of Tokugawa clan in Mikawa which based from his hereditary vassals
Fudai daimyō. The system which called "
Sanbi no gunsei" (三備の軍制) with the structure divide the governance into three sections: •
Hatamoto-Senshi: Ieyasu's direct vassals unit of army. Their task was to personally protect Ieyasu, the earliest commanders of this unit such as Matsudaira Ietada (Tojo),
Torii Mototada,
Honda Tadakatsu,
Sakakibara Yasumasa,
Ōkubo Tadayo, Osuga Yasutaka, Uomura Iezumi, and others • Higashi Mikawa: unit of Western Mikawa province army, put under the control of Sakai Tadatsugu as overall commander, the commanders of this unit consisted of many Matsudaira clansmen and other hereditary vassals of Tokugawa such as
Matsudaira Ietada (Fukōzu),
Matsudaira Tadamasa,
Matsudaira Ietada (Katahara), and others • Nishi-Mikawa: unit of Eastern Mikawa province army, put under the control of Ishikawa Ienari (De jure, De facto was his nephew,
Ishikawa Kazumasa) as overall commander, the commanders of this unit consisted of many Matsudaira clansmen and other hereditary vassals which assigned on eastern side of the province, such as Shimada Heizo,
Hiraiwa Chikayoshi,
Naitō Ienaga,
Sakai Tadatoshi, Matsudaira Shinichi, and others. To the end of the
Edo period they ruled Japan as
shoguns. During the Edo period There were fifteen
Tokugawa shoguns. Their dominance was so strong that some history books use the term "Tokugawa era" instead of "Edo period". Their principal family shrine is the
Tōshō-gū in
Nikkō, and their principal temples (
bodaiji) are
Kan'ei-ji and
Zōjō-ji, both in
Tokyo. Heirlooms of the clan are partly administered by the
Tokugawa Memorial Foundation. After the death of Ieyasu, in 1636, the heads of the
gosanke (the three branches with
fiefs in
Owari,
Kishū, and
Mito) also bore the Tokugawa surname, so did the three additional branches, known as the
gosankyō: the Tayasu (1731), Hitotsubashi (1735), and Shimizu (1758) family, after the ascension of
Tokugawa Yoshimune. Once a
shogun died without a living heir, both the heads of
gosanke (except
Mito-Tokugawa family) and
gosankyō had priority to succeed his position. Many
daimyōs descended from cadet branches of the clan, however, retained the surname
Matsudaira; examples include the Matsudaira of
Fukui and
Aizu. Members of the Tokugawa clan intermarried with prominent daimyo and the
Imperial family. On November 9, 1867,
Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the 15th and the last shogun of Tokugawa, tendered his resignation to
Emperor Meiji. He formally stepped down ten days later, returning governing power to the Emperor, marking the end of the ruling power of the
Tokugawa shogunate. In 1868,
Tokugawa Iesato (1863–1940, from Tayasu family) was chosen as the heir to Yoshinobu as the head of Tokugawa clan. On July 7, 1884, Iesato became a prince, just like the heads of some of other notable Japanese noble families, known as
Kazoku. The 1946
Constitution of Japan abolished the
kazoku and the noble titles, making Iesato's son,
Iemasa Tokugawa, no longer a prince. Iemasa had a son Iehide, who died young, so he was succeeded by one of his grandsons,
Tsunenari. Tsunenari is the second son of Toyoko (eldest daughter of Iemasa) and Ichirō Matsudaira (son of
Tsuneo Matsudaira), and he is also a patrilineal descendant of
Tokugawa Yorifusa, the youngest son of Tokugawa Ieyasu. In 2007, Tsunenari published a book entitled Edo no idenshi (江戸の遺伝子), released in English in 2009 as The Edo Inheritance, which seeks to counter the common belief among Japanese that the Edo period was like a
Dark Age, when Japan,
cut off from the world, fell behind. On the contrary, he argues, the roughly 250 years of peace and relative prosperity saw great economic reforms, the growth of a sophisticated urban culture, and the development of the most urbanized society on the planet. Tsunenari formed the
Tokugawa Memorial Foundation in 2003 to preserve and administer the historical objects, art, armor and documents that have been passed down in the Tokugawa family over the generations, display them for the general public and provide assistance to academic research on topics concerning historical Japan. ==Simplified descent==