Shitennō (Tokugawa clan)

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The Four Heavenly Guardians of the Tokugawa clan (徳川四天王, Tokugawa-shitennō^?) were four famous Japanese samurai generals serving Tokugawa Ieyasu during the Sengoku Period through early Edo period:

• Honda Tadakatsu
• Sakakibara Yasumasa
• Sakai Tadatsugu
• Ii Naomasa

Each of these four generals went on to found one of the prominent fudai daimyo families of the Edo period.

[edit] References

• (Japanese) Japanese Wikipedia article on the Shitennō (23 Sept. 2007)

[edit] Further Reading

• Bolitho, Harold (1974). Treasures among men; the fudai daimyo in Tokugawa Japan. New Haven: Yale University Press.