Name of a Japanese family which provided the ruling dynasty of shōguns from 1603 until the revolution which restored the power of the mikado in 1867. The founder of this dynasty was Iyéyasu Tokugawa (1542–1616), a great general and consummate politician, who was connected by descent with the Minamoto clan. The most famous of the subsequent shōguns was his grandson Iyemitsu (from 1623 to 1650).
Prince Yoshinobu [Keiki] Tokugawa (1837–1913), Japanese statesman, was the last Shogun of the Tokugawa Government, succeeding the 14th Shogun, Iemochi, in 1866. At that time already a man of matured intellect and high capacities, although his succession had been obtained by the conservatives, he soon displayed an advocacy of liberal progress. He showed great diplomatic tact in the solution of the feuds between the Satsuma and Chosu, and also in opposing the anti-foreign agitation supported by the latter. Realizing after a year’s time that the proper government of the country was impossible if continued on the lines of feudalism, which was a bar to all progress and a source of continual internal strife, the Shogun handed in his resignation to the Emperor on October 14, 1867. This act of sacrifice was the prelude to the dawn of the enlightened Meiji era at the beginning of 1868. The anti-foreign agitation ceased, the Emperor received and treated as honoured guests the representatives of foreign Powers, and Japan was thrown open to the world. Tokugawa, having renounced his shogunate rights, retired to a strictly private life from which he never emerged. He even renounced the succession to his title for his direct heir in favour of a collateral branch of the family. The Emperor Meiji accepted that renunciation, but he gave him another title of prince to be bequeathed to his own son.
