Samurai name meaning: Tokugawa Ieyasu

 

 

As one of the most famous samurai along with Toyotomi Hideyoshi 豊臣 秀吉 and Oda Nobunaga 織田 信長, Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川 家康 was the founder of Tokugawa Shogunate and put an end to Sengoku period. The transition of his famous names is as follows.

 

竹千代→松平次郎三郎元信→松平蔵人佐源元康→徳川三河守藤原家康→徳川大納言源朝臣家康

 

Samurai traditionally have several names. (learn more) They change their name to fit different situations and life stages. This was normal within the Samurai rank.

 

 

 

 

1.　竹千代　

 

Yōmyō 幼名, childhood name
mmmmm竹     千代
reading: take, chiyo
meaning: bumboo, thousand years

 

 

Takechiyo 竹千代 was the childhood name which was given to the heir of the Anjyō-Matsudaira family 安城松平氏.  Ieyasu was a son of Matsudaira Hirotada 松平 広忠, the lord of Okazaki Castle in Mikawa Province, and Odai-no-kata 於大の方, Lady Odai, the daughter of a neighboring samurai lord, Mizuno Tadamasa 水野 忠政. His mother and father were step-siblings. They were just 17 and 15 years old, respectively, when Ieyasu was born.

 

 

 

 

2.　松平 次郎三郎 元信

 

 

 

In 1556, he had a coming-of-age ceremony called Genpuku 元服 and changed his name from Takechiyo to Matsudaira Jirōsaburō Motonobu 松平 次郎三郎 元信. The ceremony was conducted by a neighboring distinguished Daimyo, Imagawa Yoshimoto 今川義元. Yoshimoto bestowed one of the kanji in his name, Moto 元, upon Ieasu, which positioned Ieyasu as subordinate to Yoshimoto. Jirōsaburō is the pseudonym that the heir of his family traditionally used. His father Hirotada and his grandfather Kiyoyasu 清康 had also taken ‘Jirōsaburō’ as their pseudonym.

 

 

 

 

3.　松平 蔵人佐 源 元康

 

 

 

In 1558, he changed his name to Matsudaira Kurodonosuke Minamoto Motoyasu 松平 蔵人佐 源 元康. Kurodonosuke 蔵人佐 is considered Hyakkanna 百官名, an official-rank-style name that samurai took to give himself authority. His signature Minamoto Motoyasu 源 元康 was found on the mail to his retainers in 1561.His use of ‘Minamoto‘ shows his tendency toward sovereign independence from the Imagawa family 今川氏. Yasu 康 of Motoyasu 元康 is one of the kanji of his grandfather Kiyoyasu who gained power and ruled all of Mikawa Province.

 

 

 

4.　徳川 三河守 藤原 家康

 

 

 

In 1563, he changed his real name to Ieyasu. The change from “Moto 元” to “Ie 家” shows the break with Imagawa family and shares the good luck of Minamoto no Yoshiie 源 義家, who was a heroic samurai in the Heian period (794–1185).
In 1566, Ieyasu requested the title “Mikawa no kami 三河守 (the governor of Mikawa Province)” from the imperial court but this was not easy to achieve. Emperor Ōgimachi 正親町天皇 hesitated over this unprecedented petition from members of the Minamoto clan to be the governor. At the time, Ieyasu responded to the claim that he was a descendant, who was following in the lineage of the Serata clan 世良田 氏, one of the main members of the Nitta clan 新田氏 (a distinguished family of Minamoto clan).
The permission was granted based on the efforts of Konoe Sakihisa 近衛 前久, who – working behind-the-scenes – found that the Nitta branch of the Tokugawa clan was purported to be part of the dynastic the Fujiwara clan which had been entitled to be the governor of Mikawa Province. Ieyasu took advice from Konoe to change his family name from Matsudaira to Tokugawa and his clan name from Minamoto to Fujiwara.

 

 

 

 

5.　徳川 大納言 源 朝臣 家康

 

 

In 1587, Ieyasu got the title “Gon-Dainagon 権大納言” upon the recommendation of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and started to use Dainagon as his pseudonym. In 1588, Ashikaga Yoshiaki 足利 義昭, the top of the Minamoto clan, resigned Seiitaishogun and put an end to Ashikaga shogunate. At this time, Ieyasu started to use “Minamoto” as his clan name. In 1590, he send an official letter with the signature Dainagon Minamoto Ason Ieyasu 大納言 源 朝臣 家康 to his retainer.
Thereafter he promoted in the imperial court and gained high rank titles. From 1601, when he became “Naidaijin 内大臣”, he used only Minamoto Ieyasu 源 家康.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you want to get your own samurai names like the above, click the bottom below. I can put your principle into a Samurai name according to the information you provide.

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大藤修, 日本人の姓・苗字・名前, p32-35