Matsudaira Nobuyasu
Matsudaira Nobuyasu (松平 信康, 13 April 1559 – 5 October 1579) was the eldest son of Tokugawa Ieyasu. His tsūshō ("common name") was Jirōsaburō (次郎三郎). He was called also "Okazaki Saburō" (岡崎 三郎), because he had become the lord of Okazaki Castle (岡崎城) in 1570. Because he was a son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, he is often referred to, retroactively, as Tokugawa Nobuyasu (徳川 信康).
Biography
Nobuyasu was Ieyasu's first son. His mother was Imagawa Yoshimoto's niece, Lady Tsukiyama.
As a child Nobuyasu was sent to the Imagawa capital of Sunpu, located in Suruga Province (modern-day Shizuoka Prefecture) as a hostage. Later he was named keeper of Okazaki Castle in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture), the birthplace of his father, and took part in the Battle of Nagashino in 1575. Several years later he was suspected of treachery by Oda Nobunaga and was confined to Ohama and then Futamata, before receiving an order to commit suicide from his father in 1579, who was acting on Oda Nobunaga's wishes, despite Nobunaga having married his daughter Tokuhime (1559-1636) to Nobuyasu.
Nobuyasu is not believed to have been a popular figure in his time, as his demise might attest. (In particular, supposedly Sakai Tadatsugu's own personal disregard for Nobuyasu led him to not refute the suspicion.) Despite this, it is said that Tokugawa Ieyasu deeply regretted the part he played in his son's death.
References
- Griffis, William (1883). The Mikado's Empire, Book I. New York: Harper & Brothers, p. 272