ABSTRACT
Having mastered the arts of war the Tokugawa Shōgunate could turn to the problems of peace. Chief among its problems was the maintenance of what was, after Ōsaka, a peacetime army. The army of the Tokugawa clan was now the army of the Japanese state. It had grown considerably since the young Ieyasu had led his samurai into batde, and had undergone at least one major change in organization. We have seen how, after the defeat of the Takeda, Ieyasu absorbed into his ranks the former retainers of the great Takeda Shingen. It is not generally known that Ieyasu owed Shingen more than merely a supply of some of the best samurai in Japan. In fact he was forced to completely reorganize his army sometime around 1584, when one of his ‘Shi-tennō’, Ishikawa Kazumasa, defected to Hideyoshi (this was the time of the Komaki campaign) and informed him of the layout, organization, supply and dispositions of Ieyasu's army. The model Ieyasu chose on which to base his re-formed army was that of Takeda Shingen. So successful did it prove that the overall scheme was retained throughout the entire life of the Tokugawa Shōgunate.
