I'm trying to write an essay and want to say " [patience] allowed Tokugawa to achieve difficult, long-range goals" but I do not have sufficient knowledge of him displaying patience to achieve a goal. I do have one point but I require some clarification. My primary resource is "The Maker of Modern Japan The Life of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu" by A.L. Sadler and I've read many small parts of it and Tokugawa's patience is described to be one of his most important attributes. "...patience was the quality he set most store by." (Sadler 17) and, "'...if my descendants wish to be as I am [as Tokugawa was]... they must study Patience.'" (Sadler 347) both indicate the importance of his patience. I have used google play book's search feature to search the book for any variations of patience, and have only found 2 instances of him displaying patience.
One of the two instances of patience that I could find relating to Tokugawa that is related is, of him being in an inferior to "Hideyoshi who had been merely a vassal who had risen from the ranks. ... It was ...[a position] he could hardly find pleasant, and it needed all his shrewdness and patience to hold his own dignity and domain with one of Hideyoshi’s genius" (Sadler 105). From what I understand this is talking about Ieyasu being a lower military rank than Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1583 but the wording regarding the promotions and actual military rankings of the two is a little bit unclear. This display of patience is the closest I could find to help me with my essay, Tokugawa using patience to achieve a long-range goal, however, I'm not really sure how this helped him achieve a long-range goal because Sadler's text says: he probably wasn't happy that Hideyoshi was a higher rank than him, and from what I understand, that Tokugawa was patient in not causing a commotion and trying to become shogun at that time but instead waiting until Hideyoshi’s death.
Did Tokugawa gain Hideyoshi’s favour / avoid conflict because he was waiting for the correct time to gather allies and take so many provinces like he ended up doing? Did he plan to wait for his death? Also did Tokugawa’s being on the council of 5 elders help him in any way? How much of what lead The Sekigahara Campaign was Tokugawa Ieyasu being patient and how much was just him taking opportunities? Thank you in advance, and sorry for any confusing wording, I was very confused myself about EVERYTHING I mention in this question before doing an hour and a half's worth of research.
We usually don't answer people's homework questions for them. But I want to say this. Sadler's book is 80 years old and is quite out-dated. But I don't think there are any other biographical work in English. So treat Sadler's work with caution.
Did Tokugawa gain Hideyoshi’s favour / avoid conflict because he was waiting for the correct time to gather allies and take so many provinces like he ended up doing? Did he plan to wait for his death?
The fact of the matter is both political and military power was heavily in Hideyoshi's favour whether before or after the two's engagement at Komaki. Whether Ieyasu's decision to submit (and really Hideyoshi did him a lot of favours to get him to submit) is patience or cold calculation or just going with the flow is up to you.
Did he plan to wait for his death?
On the one hand, once Hideyoshi was on his death bed, everyone would have been preparing. On the other, how do you find evidence for this for any plans or preparations before? The biggest challenge to this kind of thinking is how would Tokugawa Ieyasu know when Hideyoshi would die before he was dying? Hideyoshi is after all only five/six years older than Ieyasu.
I also need to caution the tale of the three unifiers and the bird is completely apocryphal.
Also did Tokugawa’s being on the council of 5 elders help him in any way?
Yes, it did. Of course. With Hideyoshi dead and Hideyori a child, Ieyasu as head of the council was effectively the most powerful daimyō in Japan (not that he could just do anything he wants...yet. Most powerful =/= unlimited power).
How much of what lead The Sekigahara Campaign was Tokugawa Ieyasu being patient and how much was just him taking opportunities?
I am unsure of what you are asking. Are you asking about the military campaign of Sekigahara, or the political situation between Hideyoshi's death and Sekigahara.
If I was doing academic history at a university level, I would chose another topic. The reason is that this is too broad, and too hard to argue. You can read his actions as he's patient in a lot of things, but you can't prove it definitively, and you certainly can't prove that patience was the only, or even the main reason, for his actions. For instance, Ieyasu married his daughter into the Hōjō clan, but was ordered to lead the attack on the Hōjō as part of Hideyoshi's giant 200k army. Was he patient, or was he scared shitless that army would be sent against him if he didn't comply, or both? If both, which one was more important? Or was he actually hungering for a chance to get more land? The fact of the matter is we don't know.
Also, really how do you argue patience was more important than his political/military acumen, or his huge land holdings, or his luck?
If you are just writing at the high school level though, the topic is fine. I would focus on looking for incidents where Ieyasu backed down, submitted to others' will, compromised in negotiations, or otherwise did not risk reaching as high as his peers. This is important, as to strongly argue patience is the key (even at the high school level) to Ieyasu's success, you must demonstrate his peers or other daimyōs when in the same situation were not as patient and were not as willing to endure pain/hardship/dishonor.
Good luck. Let me know of any more questions.
google play book's search feature to search the book for any variations of patience
What about situations where the words patience/patient/etc aren't used, but could be considered a show of patience?
If you want to argue that patience is the root of his successes, I would think that a good strategy would be to identify key moments in Tokugawa's life/career, period, and then show how patience played into them. The "facts" are the events; the "this is how it exhibits patience" is your analysis of the facts. Summed up, you have your argument.