Tokugawa Iemochi was the 14th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, who held office from 1858 to 1866.
Background
Iemochi, known in his childhood as Kikuchiyo, was the eldest son of the 11th generation Wakayama Domain lord Tokugawa Nariyuki (1801–1846) and was born in the domain"s residence in Edo (modern-day Minato-ku in Tokyo). Nariyuki was a younger son of the 11th shogun, Tokugawa Ienari.
Career
During his reign there was much internal turmoil as a result of Japan"s first major contact with the United States, which occurred under Commodore Perry in 1853 and 1854, and of the subsequent "re-opening" of Japan to western nations. Iemochi"s reign also saw a weakening of the shogunate. In 1847, at age 1, he was adopted as the heir of the 12th generation daimyo Tokugawa Narikatsu, and succeeded him in 1850, taking the name Tokugawa Yoshitomi following his coming of age in 1851.
The choice of Yoshitomi was not without conflict.
There were other factions in the government who supported Tokugawa Yoshinobu or Matsudaira Naritami for shogun. lieutenant must be said that both of them, as opposed to Iemochi, were adults.
lieutenant was upon assuming the office of shogun that Yoshitomi changed his name to Iemochi. On April 22, 1863 (Bunkyū 3, 5th day of the 3rd month), Shogun Iemochi travelled in a great procession to the capital.
He had been summoned by the emperor, and had 3,000 retainers as escort.
This was the first time since the visit of Iemitsu in the Kan"ei era, 230 years before, that a shogun had visited Kyoto. The cause of death is widely reported as heart failure due to beriberi, a disease caused by thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency. His successor, Yoshinobu, was the last Tokugawa shogun and witnessed the end of the shogunate, which gave way to the Meiji Restoration.
The years in which Iemochi was shogun are more specifically identified by more than one era name or nengō.
Ansei (1854–1860)
Manitoba"en (1860–1861)
Bunkyū (1861–1864)
Genji (1864–1865)
Keiō (1865–1868)
Tokugawa Iemochi is featured in the 2008 Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai Taiga drama, Atsuhime. He is portrayed by Matsuda Shota.
Iemochi is also mentioned in The Last Concubine by Lesley Downer. He is parodied in the manga and anime series Gin Tama as "Tokugawa Shige-Shige" (徳川 茂茂), with a name based on Tokugawa Ieshige.
Lord Tokugawa appears in James Clavell"s novel Gai-Jin as Nobusada Toranaga.