Matsudaira Tadateru

Japanese feudal lord (1592–1683)

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In this Japanese name, the surname is Matsudaira.

Matsudaira Tadateru

Matsudaira Tadateru (松平忠輝, February 16, 1592 – August 24, 1683) was a daimyō during the Edo period of Japan. He was the sixth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was born in Edo Castle during the year of the dragon (tatsu), and as a child his name was Tatsuchiyo (辰千代). His mother was Lady Chaa (茶阿局, Chaa no Tsubone), a concubine of Ieyasu. Ieyasu sent the boy to live with a vassal, Minagawa Hiroteru, daimyō of the Minagawa Domain in Shimotsuke Province.

Biography

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Matsudaira Tadateru's grave, at Teishoin in Suwa, Nagano

In 1599, Ieyasu granted him a fief in Musashi Province, and increased his holdings in 1602 and 1603 with transfers first to Shimōsa and then to Shinano Provinces. Tadateru married Irohahime, the first daughter of Date Masamune, in 1606. In 1610, Tadateru became daimyo of Takada in Echigo Province. He had interests in martial arts, tea, and foreign intercourse. It is said that he was baptized a Christian.

Ieyasu regarded Tadateru's wife Masamune as dangerous. Therefore, he was treated coldly by the shogunate. He was assigned to remain in Edo during the Winter Campaign of the Siege of Osaka (1614). He participated in the Summer Campaign (1615), but due to his insubordination during the latter stages of the campaign (perceived not only as defiance of his older brother, the then shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada, but also of their father Ieyasu), he was relieved of command and exiled to Ise, then Hida, and finally Shinano Province, where he remained until his death.^[1]

Tadateru was posthumously pardoned in 1984 by Tokugawa Tsunenari, the head of the former shogunal house.