Tokugawa Ieyasu

About Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542–1616) was a pivotal military commander and statesman who rose to become the founder and first shōgun of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan. As one of the three ‘Great Unifiers’ of Japan during the late Sengoku period, his victory at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 consolidated his power, leading to a two-and-a-half-century period of relative peace and stability known as the Edo period. This foundational achievement secures his place as the 768th most historically important figure according to the MIT Pantheon project.

Despite this profound, centuries-long geopolitical impact, Ieyasu’s modern internet presence presents a notable attention gap. He secured 966K Wikipedia views in 2025, translating to an overattention factor of +3x when benchmarked against his historical importance rank. This suggests that, relative to his historical weight, he garners more attention than his rank might predict. However, a comparison with figures like Hans Christian Ørsted (#383 importance) who received only 100K views highlights a complex distribution of online focus, where a figure of lesser historical rank captures significantly more digital attention.

This overattention is tempered by a recent decline in engagement, as indicated by the 55.5% year-over-year drop in views and a 16% contraction in momentum between Q1 and Q3 of 2025. The modern digital sphere is paying relatively high, yet rapidly decreasing, attention to this historical architect of early modern Japan.