Yoshinobu Tokugawa was the fifteenth and last of the Tokugawa shoguns.
Background
Yoshinobu Tokugawa was born on 28 October 1827. He was the seventh son of Tokugawa Nariaki, lord of the fief of Mito, and was bom in the Mito residence at Koishiltawa in Edo. As a child he went by the name Shichiro- maro.
In 1847 at the order of the shogun he went to Edo and became the adopted heir of the Hitotsubashi family. In 1848 he underwent his coming-of-age ceremony and changed his name to Yoshinobu, which is also sometimes read Keiki.
Education
In 1838 he went to Mito, where he studied in the official school of the clan, the Kodokan.
Career
In 1857 he was considered as a possible successor to the thirteenth shogun, Iesada, along with Tokugawa Yoshitomi (Ie- mochi) of the fief of Kishu, but because of the backing of the powerful minister Ii Naosuke the choice fell upon the latter. In the sixth lunar month of 1858, when Ii Naosuke, acting in his capacity as tairo (senior councilor of state) signed a trade agreement between Japan and the U.S.A., Yoshinobu expressed his opposition, and as a result he was forbidden to enter Edo Castle.
In I860 Ii Naosuke was struck down by assassins outside the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle, and after this conditions in the shogunate began to move in a direction favorable for Yoshinobu. In 1862 he was appointed guardian to the youthful shogun Iemochi, and in conjunction with his supporter Matsudaira Yoshinaga, who had also been appointed to a key post in the government, he gained effective control of the shogunate. He initiated the so-called kobu-gattai movement, which sought to promote harmony and cooperation between the imperial court (ко) and the shogunate (bu). To further this end, he journeyed to Kyoto in 1863 and on the shogun Iemochi’s behalf attempted to explain the complex question of the opening of the ports to the court and gain its approval. In 1864 he made a second trip to Kyoto in an effort to stabilize the political situation.
In the eighth month of the same year, the forces of the clan of Chbshfi, who were clamoring for the expulsion of the foreigners, surrounded the imperial palace and clashed with the palace guards at the Hamaguri Gate. At this time Yoshinobu acted as commander of the palace guards and succeeded in repulsing the attackers and putting down the attempted coup. In 1866, Shogun Iemochi set off at the head of a force of government troops to attack the Choshu forces, who were still in revolt, but died of illness at Osaka Castle. In the following year Yoshinobu succeeded him to become the fifteenth Tokugawa shogun.
Because of the trend of events at the time, Yoshinobu was persuaded on November 9 of the same year, 1867, to resign the position of shogun and proclaim the return of the power of government to the throne. In the first month of 1868 the new government of the Meiji Restoration was formed, but hostilities soon broke out between the troops loyal to the shogunate and the forces of the new government, which were made up mainly of fighting men from the domains of Satsuma and Choshu. Yoshinobu left Osaka Castle, where he had been staying, and proceeded by warship to Edo, where he made it clear that he had no intention of opposing the will of the new Emperor Meiji and was placed under surveillance. In the fifth month of the same year Yoshinobu officially turned over Edo Castle to the government forces and retired to Mito. Later the main branch of the Tokugawa family was given jurisdiction over the province of Suruga in present-day Shizuoka Prefecture, and Yoshinobu moved to Sumpu, now called Shizuoka City. He lived the remainder of his life until 1913 in quiet retirement.