TOKUGAWA IEYASU – DR STEPHEN TURNBULL-GIUSEPPE RAVA

Towards the end of the 16th century three outstanding commanders brought Japan s century of civil wars to an end, but it was Tokugawa Ieyasu who was to ensure a lasting peace. In terms of his strategic and political achievements Ieyasu ranks as Japan s greatest samurai commander. Ieyasu possessed the rare wisdom of knowing who should be an ally and who was an enemy, a key skill for a successful military leader. Ieyasu s crowning victory at Sekigahara depended on the defection to his side of Kobayakawa Hideaki, and the absence from the scene of Ieyasu s son Hidetada serves to illustrate how just once there was a failure in Ieyasu s otherwise classic strategic vision. As Stephen Turnbull explores in this colour-illustrated volume, to establish his family as the ruling clan in Japan for the next two and a half centuries was abundant proof of his true greatness.