德川家康(1543～1616年)
Tokugawa Ieyasu
德川幕府的创始人，是1603～1616年间日本的统治者，也是第三位使日本统一的统治者。最初与织田信长结为同盟，从而保证自己可以在日本地方战乱中幸存，并逐步发展自己的领地。到1580年代，德川家康已经成为一名重要的大名（即领主），控制着大片土壤肥沃、人口稠密的领地。织田信长死後，他立誓效忠丰臣秀吉，但是丰臣秀吉正在扩展并控制日本西南部的全部领地。与此同时，德川家康也开始扩大其属下的部队，并提高其领地的生产力。1590年代，德川家康没有参与丰臣秀吉军事远征损失惨重的朝鲜的探险之旅，反而进一步巩固自己的领地。丰臣秀吉死後，德川家康成为日本拥有最强大的军队和生产力最发达、最具组织性领地的大名。继而在随後的权利争斗中，德川家康成为胜利者。他没收了敌人的土地，赐予他们日本中心地带以外的土地，而日本中心地带的领地几乎全部被其占有。後来德川家康被任命为幕府将军，两年後，德川将职位传於其子，从而幕府将军一职便在德川家族中世袭传接。
English version：
1543～1616年
Tokugawa Ieyasu
Founder of the Tokugawa shogunate and ruler of Japan 1603-16, the third of the Three Unifiers of Japan. Ieyasu allied himself initially with Oda Nobunaga; that alliance allowed Ieyasu to survive the vicissitudes of Japan's endemic wars and to slowly build up his territory. By the 1580s he had become an important daimyo in control of a fertile and populous han (domain). When Nobunaga died, Ieyasu offered a vow of fealty to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was extending his control over southwestern Japan; Ieyasu, meanwhile, enlarged his vassal force and increased his domain's productivity. In the 1590s he avoided participating in Hideyoshi's disastrous expeditions to Korea, instead consolidating his position at home. When Hideyoshi died, Ieyasu had the largest, most reliable army and the most productive and best-organized domain in all Japan; he emerged as victor from the ensuing power struggle. He confiscated his enemies' lands and gave them new domains away from Japan's heartland, much of which became Tokugawa property. He received the title of shogun and two years later passed the title to his son, thereby establishing it as hereditary among the Tokugawa.