Narrow Road To The Deep North 38

Honda Tadakatsu was a colorful figure, worthy of special mention. He was known as  ‘The Warrior who surpassed Death itself’ because, despite being the veteran of over 100 battles by the end of his life, he never once suffered a significant wound, and was never defeated by another samurai. Tadakatsu’s helmet was famously adorned with deer antlers, ensuring that he was always a recognizable figure on the field of battle. Dubbed one of the ‘Three Great Spears of Japan,’ his was named tonbo-giri, or Dragonfly Cutter, because the tip of the spear was so sharp that a dragonfly that landed on it was cut in two. 
Nobunaga, notoriously disinclined to praise his followers, called him a ‘samurai among samurai.’ Takeda Shingen praised him as ‘a luxury of Tokugawa Ieyasu.’ And Toyotomi Hideyoshi noted that the best samurai were ‘Honda Tadakatsu in the east and Tachibana Muneshige in the west.’ Hideyoshi’s special experience with Tadakatsu solidified his opinion of the man. His finest moment came in the Komaki Campaign, in 1584. Left at Komaki while Ieyasu departed to engage Toyotomi troops at Nagakute, Tadakatsu observed a huge host under Hideyoshi himself move out in pursuit. With only a handful of men, Tadakatsu rode out, stood tall, and challenged the Toyotomi army to battle, from the opposite bank of the Shonai River. Hideyoshi, who outnumbered Honda by 60 to 1, was struck by the bravery of this warrior, and ordered that no harm come to him, or his men, on this bid to buy time for his warlord.
In 1568, Ieyasu‘s soldiers were part of the Nobunaga army that captured Kyoto. At the same time his own territory was expanding. After forming an alliance with the Tiger of Kai, Takeda Shingen, to conquer all the territory of the Imagawa, he again switched sides, and took up with his enemy, the Dragon of Echigo, Uesugi Kenshin. In late 1570, Ieyasu led 5,000 of his own men supporting Nobunaga at the Battle of Anegawa, against the Azai and Asakura. 
But his betrayal of Shingen would come back to bite him. The Takeda and their Hōjō allies invaded Tokugawa’s Tōtōmi lands in October 1571. Ieyasu asked for help from Nobunaga, who sent him some 3,000 troops. Two years later, at the Battle of Mikatagahara, Shingen hammered at Ieyasu's troops until they were broken. Ieyasu fled with just five men to a nearby castle. After Shingen died the following year, his less capable son, Katsuyori, was ultimately defeated in 1575 by a combined Oda-Tokugawa force of almost forty thousand warriors, at the Battle of Nagashino.
While he was increasingly able to consolidate his power base, it came at a complex cost to Ieyasu’s family dynamics. In 1579 Ieyasu's wife and his eldest son (and Nobunaga’s son-in-law), Nobuyasu, were accused by Nobunaga of conspiring with Katsuyori to assassinate him. Ieyasu's wife was executed and Nobuyasu was forced to commit seppuku. Since his second son would be adopted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Ieyasu named his third and favorite son, Hidetada, as heir.
In late 1582, Ieyasu was near Osaka and far from his own territory when he learned that Nobunaga had been assassinated. Some provinces, ruled by Nobunaga's vassals, became ripe for conquest. Ieyasu conspired with Hōjō Ujimasa to take control of Kai and Shinano provinces, while the Hōjō took control of Kazusa. At the same time Ieyasu did not take a side in the war for rule over Japan between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Shibata Katsuie, won by Hideyoshi at Battle of Shizugatake.
In 1584, Ieyasu decided to support Oda Nobukatsu, the eldest son and heir of Nobunaga, against Hideyoshi. This was a dangerous move and could have resulted in the annihilation of the Tokugawa. Tokugawa troops took the traditional Oda stronghold of Owari; Hideyoshi responded by sending in an army. It was the only time any of the great unifiers of Japan fought each other and, after months of futile marches and feints, proved indecisive. The Komaki Campaign was settled through negotiated truce, despite the fact that Hideyoshi remained understandably distrustful of Ieyasu, and five years would pass before they fought as allies.
When it came, it came with a radical deal, and a gamble of historical proportions.
In 1590, Hideyoshi attacked the last independent daimyô in Japan, the eight eastern Kantō provinces of Hōjō Ujimasa. Hideyoshi ordered them to submit to his authority and they refused. Ieyasu, though a friend and occasional ally of Ujimasa, joined his large force of 30,000 samurai with Hideyoshi's enormous army of 160,000 warriors. During the final siege of Odawara castle, Hideyoshi offered Ieyasu the radical deal- the eight Kantō provinces which they were about to take from the Hōjō, in return for the five provinces that Ieyasu currently controlled (including Ieyasu's home province of Mikawa). Ieyasu accepted. 
After the Hōjō surrendered, their leaders committed seppuku. In the riskiest move he ever made, Ieyasu left his home provinces, moved all his soldiers and vassals to Kantō, and occupied the castle town of Edo, relying on the uncertain loyalty of the former Hōjō samurai.