Ōkubo Tadayo

Ōkubo Tadayo was born in 1532 in Kamiwada, Aomi District, Mikawa Province (present-day Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture), the eldest son of Ōkubo Tadakazu, a hereditary retainer of the Matsudaira (later Tokugawa) clan. He served both Matsudaira Hirotada and Tokugawa Ieyasu from a young age, campaigning in the Mikawa Ikkō uprising and the battles of Anegawa and Mikatagahara, and was counted among the 'Seven Spears of Kanie Castle' for his conduct there.

Tadayo was especially valued for his strategic acumen and administrative skill in dealings with the Takeda and Later Hōjō clans. Takeda Shingen himself is said to have praised his military accomplishments. After Ieyasu's transfer to the Kantō region, Tadayo was granted 45,000 koku as lord of Odawara Castle and entrusted with the difficult task of administering the former domain of the defeated Later Hōjō — a clear sign that Ieyasu valued his governing ability as much as his battlefield prowess.

As the founder of the Ōkubo family's fortunes and one of Ieyasu's most trusted retainers, Tadayo was later honored as one of the 'Sixteen Divine Generals of Tokugawa.' He died in 1594 at the age of 63. Though his son Tadachika would later rise to the rank of rōjū before falling from grace, Tadayo himself remained loyal to Ieyasu throughout his life, embodying the sturdy, unadorned spirit of the Mikawa warrior.