Tokugawa Ieyasu

Born Matsudaira Takechiyo in 1543, the son of a minor daimyo, he lived as a hostage under daimyo Imagawa Yoshimoto before inheriting his father's position. He built his strength serving Oda Nobunaga, then - after Oda's death - briefly opposed Toyotomi Hideyoshi before pledging loyalty and fighting under him. Toyotomi relocated him east to the Kanto plains, away from the power center in Osaka, where Ieyasu built a castle in a fishing village called Edo. He became the most powerful daimyo under the Toyotomi regime, conserving his forces while Hideyoshi's armies bled out in Korea. After Hideyoshi died, Ieyasu won the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and seized control. He became shogun in 1603, formally stepped down two years later, and ran Japan from behind the curtain until his death in 1616, locking the country into the bakuhan system - a grid of rewards and punishments that kept the daimyo and samurai in rigid peace for more than two centuries.