by Mark Boucher | Jul 10, 2026 | Japanese Historical Figures
Tokugawa Ieyasu was born in 1543 in Mikawa province, the son of a minor warlord caught between greater powers, and spent his boyhood as a political hostage, first nearly in Oda hands and then for years under the Imagawa clan. That long captivity taught him the...
by Mark Boucher | Jul 10, 2026 | Japan Travel
by Mark Boucher | Jul 10, 2026 | Japanese Battles
Only one daimyo ever looked like a real threat to Oda Nobunaga’s ambition to unify the country: Takeda Shingen of Kai. Shingen had already swallowed the provinces around his own, and Kyoto sat in his sights past all of them. To his southwest lay Mikawa, Tokugawa...
