Ieyasu Tokugawa was the last of the three Great Unifiers of Japan, He established the Tokugawa shogunate which defined the Edo Period of Japan and ruled from 1603 up the the Meiji restoration.

He was born to a minor daimyo and once was held hostage. Upon succeeding his father, he built up his strength under Oda Nobunaga, the first of the Great Unifiers. He was very briefly a rival of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, another of the Great Unifiers before declaring his allegiance and working for him. He was appointed to the Kanto Plains and built his palace in the fishing village of what has now became Tokyo. He kept his power when Toyotomi failed to conquer Korea and seized power in the Battle of Sekigahara.

He was appointed as shogun in 1603 but voluntarily abdicated in 1605. He remained in power until 1616 when he died of possibly cancer at age 73. Before that he established the bakuhan system which was designed by him to keep the daimyo and samurai in check.

Unlike Hideyoshi, Tokugawa made no plans for conquest and instead established peace in Japan and started a period of isolationism as well as persecutions of Christians.