The leader of the black ships that arrived on July 8, 1853 was Commodore Matthew Perry. On commission of the president of the USA at the time, Number 13 Millard Fillmore, the last president not to be a Democrat or Republican up to this date. This was not some fly by night operation. It was a concerted effort planned over several years. Commodore Perry himself was born April 10, 1794 in Newport, Rhode Island to a Naval family. He served first as a teenager in the War of 1812, the Second Barbary War, and many patrols throughtout Africa and the Caribbean policing the slave trade and pirates. He is often called the “Father of the Steam Navy” and organized the first corps of naval engineers. In 1841, he was promoted to Commodore; a since abandoned title with a modern day equivalency to a Rear Admiral in the US Navy, O-7. Perry saw extensive action in the Mexican-American War where American Naval power was used to invade the Mexican Republic. The amphibious landings of Veracruz in 1847 were the biggest US Naval operation as such until World War 2.
The Mid 19th century for Japan was a culmination of some of its most peaceful years. Having left the 戦国時代 Sengoku-Jidai Warring Years as numerous feudal war lords fought for control of Japan. Tokugawa Ieyasu was the leader who survived the brutal struggle for power. Power in feudal Japan was long centered around the Kinki Region where the Imperial Capital was long housed in Nara and Kyoto. Complete control of the islands of Japan under one ruler was not complete until the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeated the last remaining adversary clan in 1590. Toyotomi did not choose peace but ventured on expansion through Asia to expand his empire. These are often called the Imjin Wars in English. With intent to conquer China, he never got past Korea and passed away from illness leaving behind a Council of Five Elders to hold power until his 5 year old son was old enough for the throne.
The man Toyotomi most feared was Tokugawa Ieyasu, the most powerful daimyo in Japan. Like most men of his era, his ascendance was one of intrigue, survival, and betrayal. Born Matsudaira Takechiyo January 31, 1543, in Okazaki Castle, Mikawa Province, in the Chubu region, present day Aichi Prefecture. He was the son of a minor daimyo of the Matsudaira clan named Matsudaira Hirotada and daughter of the neighboring Mizuno clan named Odai no Kata. His father controlled a portion of the Tokaido highway linking Kyoto to the east, now known for the Shinkansen line between Osaka and Tokyo. They were sandwiched between two more powerful clans: the Imagawa of the eastern Suruga Province, present day Shizuoka Prefecture, and the Oda clan to the west. The Oda clan were run by Oda Nobuhide, the father of the famous Oda Nobunaga who came closest to uniting Japan before his untimely death. Ieyasu’s (at the time called Takechiyo) uncle decided to defect to the more powerful Oda clan. After the death of Takechiyo’s grandfather in law, father of his mother Odai no Kata, a leader of the Mizuno clan, the family were targeted by the Mizuno clan which prompted a divorce between Takechiyo’s parents. As the Matsudaira clan were under attack by the neighboring Oda clan, they formed an alliance with the Imagawa clan prompting an agreement that Hirotada’s son, Takechiyo, would be held hostage in Sunpu Castle of his domain in Suruga Province. Oda Nobuhide learned of this arrangement and promptly kidnapped Takechiyo to kill the agreement between Takechiyo’s father and the Imagawa clan. Hirotada decided to sacrifice his son to preserve his alliance with the Imagawa clan. Nobuhide decided to not kill Takechiyo, then 5 or 6 years old, and kept him as hostage for 3 years at Honshoji Temple in modern day Nagoya. It is also believed that around this time, Takechiyo would have met Nobunaga, around 8 years his senior.
Around the time Takechiyo was taken hostage by the Oda clan, his father died presumably of natural causes and his captor Nobuhide died in an epidemic. This caused a succession crisis as Nobunaga was the legitimate heir to Nobuhide but not his oldest son as he also had several older “illegitimate” sons. Nobunaga was also believed to be resistant and defiant to the responsibility of power as the story is he acted out at his father’s funeral throwing incense at the altar. The Oda clan was divided and the Imagawa clan, sensing weakness, attacked the castle where the “illegitimate” son, Nobuhiro, was living. To save his “illegitimate” older brother, Nobunaga handed over Takechiyo to the Imagawa clan in exchange.
Takechiyo was treated well in the Imagawa clan and at 13 years old had his genpuku ceremony, an ancient coming of age ceremony reserved for the upper class and a predecessor to the modern Japanese equivalent of the Seijinshiki, now held for all Japanese youth reaching the age of 20 in that calendar year, the unofficial age of adulthood in Japan since 1948. Following tradition, his name was changed to Matsudaira Jirōsaburō Motonobu 松平 次郎三郎 元信 . He was also allowed to visit the tomb of his father in Okazaki. A year later, he married Lady Tsukiyama, a relative of the Imagawa clan. He also changed his name again to Matsudaira Kurandonosuke Motoyasu (松平 蔵人佐 元康) . A year later his first son was born and he was allowed to return to his home province of Mikawa. This was the beginning of his military, battlefield and war experience as he was ordered to fight for the Imagawa clan. Ieyasu, now called Motoyasu, found himself an adversary to his childhood acquaintance Oda Nobunaga. In the 1560 Battle of Okehazama, Motoyasu’s leader of the Imagawa clan, Yoshimoto was killed. Showing his shrewd predilection for self preservation and opportunism, Motoyasu decided to ally with Nobunaga. The so-called Kiyosu Alliance was kept secret as Motoyasu’s wife and child were still held hostage by the Imagawa clan. Eventually finding an opportunity to escape, the alliance was made firm with the mutual betrothal of their children in marriage, Motoyasu’s first son, Nobuyasu and Nobunaga’s eldest daughter, Tokuhime.
In 1567, Motoyasu changed his name again to the more commonly known Tokugawa Ieyasu. Needing to claim imperial lineage to the Minamoto clan to become a Shogun, Ieyasu hired an imperial noble to find a connection or maybe rather fabricate a connection to the imperial family through an ancient document that claimed a branch of the Minamoto clan came from a village called Tokugawa. With lineage in the Matsudaira clan, he claimed descent from the Seiwa Genji branch of the Minamoto clan. While his initial claim of lineage to the Emperor Seiwa was denied, the imperial court at this time was relatively poor and weak so bribery could have been a means or the pressure of the military might of the Oda clan who had just invaded and controlled Kyoto at around this time. This was all a plan to set himself up for the title of Shogun since that title required lineage in the holy and imperial Minamoto clan.
Around this time was the presence of the great Takeda Shingen who hailed from the present day Yamanashi Prefecture. Many people know that Mt. Fuji, a physical symbol of Japan, its tallest mountain with the near perfect snow capped peak, straddles the borders of present day Shizuoka and Yamanashi Prefectures. It almost mirrors the men and man who rose to prominence in precisely this region, right at the heart of Japan, with the fire, turmoil, and viciousness burning within. Shingen made a deal with Ieyasu to destroy the Imagawa clan and split the province, modern day Shizuoka. Shingen did not respect the deal as he invaded areas promised to Ieyasu. Shingen appealed to Nobunaga to get Ieyasu to recognize the alliance which Ieyasu denied. Shingen and Ieyasu looked poised for conflict. Ieyasu expanded east taking the province planned in the old alliance with Shingen, but preserved the remaining leader of the Imagawa clan to help him rebuild his control. Consequently, he aligned with Uesugi Kenshin, the Dragon of Echigo Province, from what is now modern day Niigata Prefecture, since he was an enemy of, obviously, Takeda Shingen. This showcases Ieyasu’s brilliance at alliance, self preservation, and seeing the longer term vision. A great description of Ieyasu’s tactics is the horizon player. Obviously trained in Eastern ideas of War and conquest, he perfectly emulated the idea of the tamed tiger. A tamed tiger is the wild, dangerous animal that has learned to live amongst humans but at any moment can unleash its wild fury.
Learning of this alliance of Ieyasu and Uesugi Kenshin, Shingen was driven with anger and attacked Ieyasu’s positions. He defeated Ieyasu so thoroughly that Ieyasu barely escaped with his life. Ieyasu was saved by the fact that Shingen died suddenly on May 13, 1573. The Oda-Tokugawa alliance was able to win back the lands under Takeda control.
In 1579, fractures and tensions among the Oda-Tokugawa clans were starting to boil over. As you may remember, Ieyasu’s wife, Lady Tsukiyama was from the Imagawa clan. Oda Nobunaga had killed her uncle, Imagawa Yoshimoto, in the Battle of Okehazama in 1560. Her parents were also driven to suicide through the defeat of their clan. Lady Tsukiyama’s daughter in law, Tokuhime, was Nobunaga’s daughter, likely brewing contempt within her. Also upset that Tokuhime could not produce a son, she took in concubines from the defeated Takeda clan, a deep enemy to Nobunaga. All the trouble prompted Tokuhime to write a letter to her father explaining that Lady Tsukiyama was collaborating with Takeda Katsuyori, one of Oda Nobunaga’s worst enemies. Nobunaga, the most powerful man in Japan at this time, brought this information to Ieyasu. Choosing to preserve his alliance with Nobunaga, Ieyasu made the difficult decision to kill his wife and force his son to commit seppuku. The accusations were never substantiated but Ieyasu made the difficult decision to eliminate his closest family members to preserve himself and the alliance. Tokuhime was escorted back to her father’s domain and her daughters were left with Ieyasu.
On June 21, 1582, Nobunaga looking set to become the most powerful man in Japan was ambushed by a vassal, Akechi Mitsuhide, while staying at a temple in Kyoto called the Honno ji Incident. Called to reinforce Hashiba Hideyoshi, later named Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he instead circled his troops back to ambush a vulnerable Nobunaga. Akechi Mitsuhide likely killed Oda Nobunaga out of a mix of personal survival and political preservation, driven by resentment over public humiliations, fear of being purged as Nobunaga unified Japan, and a desire to protect traditional Imperial customs from Nobunaga’s radical self-deification. Additionally, he may have been secretly urged to strike by influential figures within the Imperial Court or the fallen Ashikaga Shogunate who sought to end Nobunaga’s tyrannical reign. Nevertheless, another power vacuum arose with Mitsuhide attempting to take control of the Imperial court. Hideyoshi, learning of the betrayal, marched his troops back to Kyoto killing Mitsuhide less than two weeks after the death of Nobunaga.
Ieyasu learned of the killing of Nobunaga while near Osaka. He narrowly escaped danger via the treacherous Iga trek back to his home domain. Although Hideyoshi and Ieyasu briefly clashed during the Battle of Komaki-Nagakute, they formed a pragmatic alliance that allowed Hideyoshi to unify Japan and relocate Ieyasu to the marshy, backwater town of Edo (modern-day Tokyo)—a strategic exile that Ieyasu instead used to quietly build an unshakeable economic and military foundation while avoiding the devastating Korean invasions. Following Hideyoshi’s death in 1598, Ieyasu capitalized on his preserved strength, defeating Hideyoshi’s loyalists at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, the ultimate battle royale of Japan and largest samurai battle in its history. Nearly 160,000 to 180,000 samurai fought in Sekigahara, modern day Gifu Prefecture, destroying the remaining Toyotomi clan at Osaka, and establishing the Tokugawa Shogunate, which ruled a unified Japan in peace for over two centuries.
So what does this all have to do with Shohei Ohtani. Well, most of these names mentioned are people that anyone who knows anything about Japanese culture would know. Some of the greats of Japanese history and world history, Shohei’s own name is rising as one of the greats to come from that archipelago. I would argue Shohei Ohtani is maybe the greatest person to come from the Japanese islands.
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