Yorifusa was intelligent and good at martial arts.
He was especially good at hunting with the short bow. He also liked hawking which his father Ieyasu loved.
He was interested in Confucianism. He invited two teachers of Confucianism from Kyoto. They also educated Yorifusa's heir, Mitsukuni. While Mitsukuni governed the clan, these teachers contributed to the advancement of education in the clan.
Yorifusa had twenty-six children from his mistresses. He never had a wife.
Except for Mitsukuni, Yorifusa’s heir, his sons became lords of clan branches. Until the end of the Edo era, the clan never received an adaopted child from other branches of the Tokugawa family, therefore, Yorifusa’s blood line continued to his descendants.
On the other hand, many descendants of Yorifusa were adopted to other Tokugawa branches. One of them was the fifteenth Shogun Yoshinobu. He was adopted by the Hitotsubashi Tokugawa family when he was eleven years old.
photo: Hotel Chinzanso