Tōdō Takatora

In this Japanese name, the family name is Tōdō.

Tōdō Takatora (藤堂高虎, Tōdō Takatora^?) (February 16, 1556- November 9, 1630) was a Japanese daimyo of the Azuchi-Momoyama period through Edo period. He rose from relatively humble origins as an ashigaru (a foot soldier) to become a daimyo. During his lifetime he changed his feudal master seven times and worked for ten people, but in the end he rendered loyalty to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who became his last master.^[1][2]

He was promoted rapidly under Hashiba Hidenaga, the younger brother of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and he participated in the invasions of Korea as a commander of Toyotomi's fleet. His fiefdom at that time was Iyo-Uwajima. During the Edo period, the wealth of each fiefdom was measured as a volume of rice production in koku. Iyo-Uwajima was assessed at 70,000 koku.^[1][2]

At the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, although he was one of Toyotomi's main generals, he sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu. After war he was given a larger fiefdom, Iyo-Imabari, assessed at 200,000 koku. Later in life he was made lord of Tsu (with landholdings in Iga and Ise), a domain of 320,000 koku.

Todo Takatora is also famous for excelling in castle design. He is said to have involved in building as much as twenty castles.^[1][2]

Tōdō in video games

Tōdō appears as a playable general who specializes in cannon barrage in the video game Kessen.

References

• (Japanese) Tōdō family information (25 Sept. 2007)

External links

• Works by or about Tōdō Takatora in libraries (WorldCat catalog)fr:Takatora Tōdō

ko:도도 다카토라 it:Todo Takatora ja:藤堂高虎