January 31, 1543 - Tokugawa Ieyasu
His inclusion here rests less on cruelty than on the calculated consolidation of power that ended a century of civil war — and then entrenched a single family's rule over Japan for more than two and a half centuries. Ieyasu outlasted rivals, outmaneuvered allies, and converted military supremacy into hereditary institutional control with a thoroughness few rulers have matched. The Tokugawa system he founded suppressed dissent, enforced rigid social stratification, and closed Japan to most outside contact — shaping the country's trajectory long after his death.
From Wikipedia
Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; January 31, 1543 – June 1, 1616) was a Japanese samurai, daimyo and the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow Oda subordinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The son of a minor daimyo, Ieyasu once lived as a hostage under daimyo Imagawa Yoshimoto on behalf of his father. He later succeeded as daimyo after his father's death, serving as ally, vassal, and general of the Oda clan, and building up his strength under Oda Nobunaga.
After Oda Nobunaga's death, Ieyasu was briefly a rival of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, before declaring his allegiance to Toyotomi and fighting on his behalf. Under Toyotomi, Ieyasu was relocated to the Kanto plains in eastern Japan, away from the Toyotomi power base in Osaka. He built his castle in the fishing village of Edo (now Tokyo). He became the most powerful daimyo and the most senior officer under the Toyotomi regime.
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