Tokugawa Ieyasu

"Tokugawa Ieyasu, acknowledging the failure of his belief before the fall of his household."

- "If she doesn't sing, I will wait till she does sing, my dear cuckoo." That was my belief, but I guess there are times when that is impossible. I thought they would ruin themselves if we took our time, but it seems I was being too optimistic. I'm changing my belief! If waiting makes no progress, I shall destroy everything and make it all mine!! I shall defeat you and become the emperor of JAPAN!!

About
Tokugawa Ieyasu is a powerful raccoon dog Youkai and the former leader of Tokugawa House in the nation of JAPAN.

Ieyasu was created shortly following the end of the Great Youkai War after Hase Danjuro, a powerful and ambitious youkai warlord who opposed Dokuganryuu Masamune's conquest of the Youkai Kingdom, was defeated. In order to prevent the tenacious Danjuro from returning to have his revenge against Masamune, his body was boiled alive in a sacred spirit-sealing kettle owned by the Tokugawa family. As his body was destroyed, Danjuro's desire to conquer all of JAPAN proved to be so intense that Ieyasu was given life inside of the kettle as a result of it.

Inheriting his creator's great ambition, Ieyasu quickly recruited the help of his fellow raccoon dogs and mobilized a military campaign to conquer the Tokugawa family's territory. Due to his great power and excellence as a military leader, Ieyasu's effort succeeded, even to the point of defeating and imprisoning the legendary warrior princess Tokugawa Sen. Ieyasu then appointed himself the new leader of the Tokugawa family, and declared its territory to be a safe haven for raccoon dogs everywhere, forcing the remaining Humans in the area to dress up in costumes resembling them.

When word reached Masamune that a group of youkai had waged war in human territory without his permission, he immediately confronted Ieyasu about his actions. Having learned from Danjuro's past mistake of hastily making enemies with all who opposed him, Ieyasu respectfully bowed down to Masamune and claimed that he had conquered Tokugawa House to use as a subordinate nation for the Youkai Kingdom. After promising the youkai King that he would not conquer any further human territories, Ieyasu was allowed to continue ruling Tokugawa. Realizing that he would be unable to ever effectively oppose Masamune without first strengthening his nation, Ieyasu began to slowly increase the Tokugawa family's power, forming alliances with the neighboring nations of Takeda and Imagawa while steadily improving the state of its army.

During the events of Sengoku Rance, Ieyasu learned that the nation of Oda had begun a military campaign to conquer all of JAPAN under the orders of a new shadow ruler who had taken control of its army. Not wanting to make any unnecessary enemies, Ieyasu avoided directly confronting the rival nation in hopes of eventually gaining its trust and toppling it from the inside. Tokugawa will only declare war on Oda if it is already engaged in war with either of its allied nations of Takeda or Imagawa. Alternatively, should Tokugawa still be active when Oda enters into war against the Youkai Kingdom, Ieyasu will agree to fully merge his nation with those of the other youkai in order to assist them.

Depending on the player's actions when at war with Tokugawa, Oda House can either vassalize or conquer Tokugawa's territories. Should the nation be vassalized under Oda, Ieyasu will respectfully allow himself to be abused by Rance until the appearance of the Demon Army led by the Dark Lord Xavier, after which he will betray Oda and ally his nation with the Monster forces in order to take JAPAN for himself. Rance can prevent this betrayal from happening by repeatedly tormenting Ieyasu, culminating in feeding him a bowl of poisoned raccoon dog soup, killing him. Should Oda conquer Tokugawa's territories by force, Ieyasu, upset that his strategy of slowly and carefully amassing power proved to be a failure, will confront the Oda army commanders directly in a final duel to decide the fate of the nation. After a difficult fight, Rance will seemingly deliver the finishing blow to Ieyasu, only for him to reveal that he had faked his death in order for his enemy to let his guard down. Before being able to deliver his surprise attack, however, Ieyasu will be intercepted by Masamune, who, his suspicions of Ieyasu being a threat to the peace between humans and youkai confirmed, kills him.

On additional playthroughs, Rance is able to capture Ieyasu's subordinate Sakakibara Yasumasa and learn from him that all raccoon dogs possess an insatiable appetite for Tempura. Rance is able to use this knowledge against Ieyasu when conquering Tokugawa's territories, where, instead of confronting him in battle, he has Sill Plain present him with a large plate of tempura. His feelings of conquest and ambition completely dissipated by the delicious taste of tempura, Ieyasu will submit both himself and his nation to Oda without issue and will loyally fight for his former enemies as a commander. While serving under Oda, Ieyasu will steadily become reunited with his raccoon dog subordinates, who he had lost contact with following the fall of Tokugawa, and the six will spend the remainder of their days happily eating tempura together.

While Tokugawa was canonically conquered by force and Ieyasu himself seemingly killed, he is listed as being alive in his profile on Rance World Notes, suggesting that he once again faked his death in order to avoid fighting a losing battle. His current status beyond this is unknown.

Personality and Appearance
Ieyasu is an incredibly large raccoon dog with an enormous upper body. His lower body, in contrast, consists mostly of the sacred kettle of the Tokugawa family in which he was created, with only his feet poking out through the bottom of it. Likely as a result of being partially made from a boiling kettle, Ieyasu's body emits steam from itself at all times. Ieyasu's appearance differs heavily from those of most other raccoon dogs, who are small and chubby creatures, making him look much more humanoid and intimidating in comparison. Ieyasu's clothing consists of a combination of an ornate-looking golden brown kimono bearing the crest of Tokugawa and black and red-colored JAPANese-style armor.

Created from the boundless ambition of Hase Danjuro, Ieyasu is an incredibly driven individual. His sole goal in life is to conquer all of JAPAN in the name of the raccoon dog in order to make his species the dominant race in the country. He is not hasty in pursuing his dreams, however, and believes that, due to his incredibly long lifespan as a youkai, the most effective way to achieve them is by patiently waiting for his rivals to destroy each other before seizing total control of JAPAN for himself. Because of this, he almost never actively engages in combat against enemy nations, and instead attempts to form peaceful alliances with them in order to gain their trust and reap the benefits of their partnership to improve the state of his own nation. His favorite saying is "If the cuckoo bird doesn't sing, wait for her to sing.", reflecting his belief in the importance of waiting. Humorously, he seems to take this saying literally as well as figuratively, as he often spends his free time staring at a cuckoo bird for hours on end.

Ieyasu generally carries himself as a polite and humble individual, and will dutifully offer his assistance to others when they approach him. Despite this, when he believes the time is right for him to turn against them, Ieyasu will drop all of his previous humility and replace it with swift and ferocious aggression, attacking his former allies without hesitation. Even during these moments, however, Ieyasu remains cautious, and will go so far as to fake his own death and accept various losses in order to ensure that he may live to fight another day. Ieyasu desires to create a world ruled by raccoon dogs above all else, and is willing to use any tactic he can to do so, no matter how underhanded it may be. The sole thing capable of removing Ieyasu's great ambition is tempura, a food that he loves so much that he loses any will to do anything but eat more of it whenever he is given any. Ieyasu's love for tempura is so great that, when given a large amount by Rance, he completely abandoned all of his goals and began loyally serving under the Oda family in order to obtain more.

Despite his conniving personality, Ieyasu is not an altogether bad person. While he believes that raccoon dogs should rule over JAPAN as the dominant race, he does not at all dislike humans, and is perfectly willing to treat them with respect so long as they embrace the customs of the raccoon dogs, even happily marrying a human woman named Yuugao. He is also incredibly close with his five subordinate raccoon dogs Honda Tadakatsu, Sakai Tadatsugu, Naomasa Li, Hattori Hanzou and Sakakibara Yasumasa, who he treats as his own children and enjoys cuddling up together with while sleeping. When not actively working to further his agenda, Ieyasu enjoys throwing extravagant parties, and is more than happy to allow anyone who is interested to attend them.

Ieyasu has a hostile relationship with the youkai king Dokuganryuu Masamune. As Ieyasu's goal is to one day conquer JAPAN himself, he views the other non-raccoon dog youkai as inevitable enemies obstructing his path. Despite this, as Ieyasu understands that Masamune is a highly dangerous opponent, he willingly allowed Tokugawa to be recognized as a vassal nation of the youkai kingdom and agreed to avoid creating conflicts with humans in order to prevent instigating his wrath. Masamune, having fought and defeated Ieyasu's creator, recognizes both his great power and lofty ambitions, and remained highly suspicious of his true intentions even after their two nations allied together. Following Tokugawa's loss at the hands of Oda, Masamune instantly arrives to execute Ieyasu as a result of his violating their peace agreement, suggesting that he had anticipated that he would eventually go against his orders.

Abilities
Ieyasu is an incredibly powerful youkai who possesses a fearful amount of strength. His massive body grants him vast amounts of power and durability that is far beyond those of an ordinary being. He is considered to be one of the strongest youkai currently in existence, beaten out only by the Youkai King Dokuganryuu Masamune and his wife and former Youkai King Omachi in terms of sheer destructive capability. While youkai no longer possess Level Caps, Ieyasu was previously shown to have had a very high one of 55, which he had reached, making him roughly on par with the elite of the Continent. This great power was prominently displayed during his final battle with the forces of Oda, where he was able to hold his own singlehandidly against several of the nation's commanders, with even the obscenely strong Rance having to use every ounce of his strength in order to defeat him.

In combat, Ieyasu wields a pair of katana swords to deadly effect. He is a practitioner of the Bajibahal school of swordsmanship, an incredibly rare and difficult to master style that relies on using two swords at once in order to overwhelm an opponent with unstoppable offensive power. Compared to Ieyasu's cautious and patient personality, his ferocious swordsmanship is quite surprising, allowing him to catch his enemies off guard when he is forced to fight directly. Perhaps most notably, he is capable of performing an unnamed special technique in which he slashes his swords in a cross shape at great speeds in order to produce a fast and powerful gust of wind to damage his enemies. Though youkai do not possess Skill Levels, Ieyasu's mastery of a complicated sword style as well as possession of a special move suggests that his swordsmanship is comparable to someone with a Sword Combat Lv2 skill level.

Along with his physical strength and skill, Ieyasu is a skilled national leader who relies primarily on cunning and manipulation in order to achieve his goals. His favored strategy of allying himself with his competitors allows him to leave others to fight his battles for him while also passively increasing his own power and influence. Through this strategy, Ieyasu was able to raise Tokugawa into a formidable military force as well as form an alliance with the Takeda Family, who were considered to be one of the front-runners in the race to conquer JAPAN. Ieyasu's strategy of patiently waiting for the precise time to strike proved to be ineffectual against Rance, however, whose impatient and aggressive style of conquest caused Tokugawa to topple before Ieyasu was able to devise a strategy to effectively intercept him.

Trivia

 * He is based on the historical figure of the same name, who is recognized as the third unifier of Japan during the Sengoku era alongside Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, as well as the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which ruled over Japan for over 200 years before the beginning of the Meiji Restoration. The historical Ieyasu was known for his wise and cautious personality, only taking action when it was most beneficial to him. Ieyasu was nicknamed "furu tanuki", meaning "old raccoon", due to his large stomach and sly personality. Despite closely taking after his namesake, the Ieyasu of the Continent is much less successful in his endeavor to rule JAPAN, likely as a result of Rance's unpredictable behavior rendering his historically successful strategies close to useless.
 * Ieyasu's lower body being a kettle is a reference to the famous Japanese folktale Bunbuku Chagama, in which a raccoon dog transforms itself into a kettle only to sprout legs after being boiled.