Tōdō Takatora

Infobox_Officeholder | name= Tōdō Takatora
nationality=Japanese


caption= Tōdō Takatora
order=First Lord of Imabari
term_start= 1600
term_end= 1608
predecessor= none
successor= Matsudaira Sadafusa
order2=First Lord of Tsu
term_start2= 1608
term_end2= 1630
predecessor2= none
successor2= Tōdō Takatsugu
birth_date=birth date|1556|2|16|mf=y
birth_place= Tōdō Village, Ōmi Province, Japan
death_date= death date and age|1630|11|9|1556|2|16|mf=y
death_place= Edo, Japan
spouse=

nihongo|Tōdō Takatora|藤堂高虎| (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.cite web|title=戦国 出世の方程式　～藤堂高虎 大坂夏の陣の大勝負～、日本放送協会 (The formula for promotion in the "Sengoku" ages, Todo Takatora's Challenge in the Osaka Castle Summer War, by NHK|language=Japanese|url=http://www.nhk.or.jp/sonotoki/2005_09.html#03|accessdate = 2007-03-27] cite web|title=津市　文化課　藤堂高虎 (The city of Tsu official homepage)|language=Japanese|url=http://www.info.city.tsu.mie.jp/modules/bunkaka/article.php?articleid=108|accessdate = 2007-03-27] 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.

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.

Tōdō in video games

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

References

*ja icon [http://www1.parkcity.ne.jp/sito/230.html Tōdō family information] (25 Sept. 2007)

External links

*worldcat id|lccn-n85-32148