READ List of Famous Daimyos

33.6k views 92 items

List of famous daimyos, with photos, bios, and other information when available. Who are the top daimyos in the world? This includes the most prominent daimyos, living and dead, both in America and abroad. This list of notable daimyos is ordered by their level of prominence, and can be sorted for various bits of information, such as where these historic daimyos were born and what their nationality is. The people on this list are from different countries, but what they all have in common is that they're all renowned daimyos.

List features famous Japanese feudal lords like Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Oda Nobunaga. Also featuring Japanese samurai who became lords, this list has it all. 

From reputable, prominent, and well known daimyos to the lesser known daimyos of today, these are some of the best professionals in the daimyo field. If you want to answer the questions, "Who are the most famous daimyos ever?" and "What are the names of famous daimyos?" then you're in the right place. 
Oda Nobunaga is listed (or ranked) 1 on the list List of Famous Daimyos
Photo: Freebase/Public domain

Oda Nobunaga was a powerful samurai daimyo warlord of Japan in the late 16th century who initiated the unification of Japan near the end of the Warring States period. He lived a life of continuous military conquest, eventually conquering a third of Japan before his death in a 1582 coup. His successors were Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a loyal Oda supporter who was the first to unify all of Japan and was thus the first ruler of the whole country since the Ōnin War, and later Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was to consolidate his rule under a shogunate, which ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Nobunaga is remembered in Japan as one of the most brutal figures of the Warring States period and was ...more

see more on Oda Nobunaga

Matsudaira Hirotada was the lord of Okazaki Castle in Mikawa province, Japan during the Sengoku Period of the 16th century. He is best known for being the father of Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate. ...more

see more on Matsudaira Hirotada
Ii Naosuke is listed (or ranked) 3 on the list List of Famous Daimyos
Photo: Freebase/GNU Free Documentation License

Ii Naosuke was daimyo of Hikone and also Tairō of Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan, a position he held from April 23, 1858 until his death on March 24, 1860. He is most famous for signing the Harris Treaty with the United States, granting access to ports for trade to American merchants and seamen and extraterritoriality to American citizens. He was also an enthusiastic and accomplished practitioner of the Japanese tea ceremony, in the Sekishūryū style, and his writings include at least two works on the tea ceremony. Under Ii Naosuke’s guidance, the Tokugawa shogunate navigated past a particularly difficult conflict over the succession to the ailing and childless Tokugawa Iesada. Ii Naosuke managed ...more

see more on Ii Naosuke
Matsudaira Kiyoyasu is listed (or ranked) 4 on the list List of Famous Daimyos
Photo: Freebase/Public domain

Matsudaira Kiyoyasu was the 7th lord over the Matsudaira clan during the Sengoku period of Japan. Kiyoyasu was the grandfather of the exceedingly famous unifier of Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu. Kiyoyasu soon gained control of the whole of the northern region of Mikawa province after the Saigo clan had surrendered after four generations of conflict between the two clans. The Okazaki castle was also built as a monument towards the Matsudaira's power. However, certain hatred began growing within a certain retainer of Kiyoyasu's, a retainer by the name of Abe Masatoyo. During the year of 1535, this certain retainer had somehow sneaked into Kiyoyasu's secret chambers and slew him with his Muramasa ...more

see more on Matsudaira Kiyoyasu