Tokugawa Tsunanari

Tokugawa Tsunanari (徳川 綱誠, September 4, 1652 – July 1, 1699) was daimyō of Owari Domain during early-Edo period Japan.

Biography

Tokugawa Tsunanari was the son of the second daimyō of Owari Domain, Tokugawa Mitsutomo by his official wife, Reisen-in, the daughter of Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu. Although Mitsutomo’s second son, he was given the position of first son and heir over his elder brother, who had been born to a concubine. He undertook his genpuku ceremony under Shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna on April 5, 1657 and was given the adult name of the “Tsunayoshi”. He changed his name to "Tsunanari" to avoid confusion with an uncle of the same name who was daimyō of Tatebayashi Domain.

On the retirement of his father on April 27, 1693, Tsunanari became the 3rd Tokugawa daimyō of Owari Domain, with 3rd court rank and the courtesy title of Chūnagon. However, although officially daimyō, all power remained in the hands of his retired father and Tsunanari spent most of his time in various scholarly pursuits, including starting work on a comprehensive history of Owari Province in 1698. In addition to his official wife (a daughter of court noble Hirohata Tadayki), Tsunanari had 13 concubines, by whom he had a total of 40 children (22 male, 18 female).

Tsunanari died on July 1, 1699 by eating a tainted strawberry, and was succeeded by his 10th son, Tokugawa Yoshimichi. He was posthumously awarded 2nd Court Rank and the courtesy title of Dainagon. His grave is at the Owari Tokugawa clan temple of Kenchū-ji in Nagoya.

References

• Papinot, Edmund. (1906) Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du japon. Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha...Click link for digitized 1906 Nobiliaire du japon (2003)
• The content of much of this article was derived from that of the corresponding article on Japanese Wikipedia.