Editing Shogun (section)

==== Heirs of the Tokugawa shogun ====
{{Further|Ōoku|Gosanke|Gosankyō}}
[[File:Chiyoda Ooku Hanami.jpg|thumb|[[Ukiyo-e]] depicting women in the {{nihongo3|great interior|大奥|[[ōoku]]}} enjoying the [[cherry blossoms]]]]
During the reign of the third shogun, [[Tokugawa Iemitsu]], the {{nihongo3|great interior|大奥|[[ōoku]]}} at [[Edo Castle]] was expanded at the suggestion of his nanny, [[Lady Kasuga]], to ensure the birth of a male heir to the shogun's lineage, and became a vast shogun's harem with nearly 1,000 women working as maidservants. The women of ''ōoku'' were highly hierarchical, with the {{nihongo|official wife|御台所|[[midaidokoro]]}} of the shogun, who was of aristocratic lineage, ruling at the top, and the older women who had served her for a long time actually controlling ''ōoku''. The women who worked as maidservants in ''ōoku'' were daughters of the {{nihongo3||旗本|[[hatamoto]]}}, a high-ranking class of samurai, and they had servants from the {{nihongo3|townspeople|町人|[[chōnin]]}} and peasants who worked for them. Even low-ranking servants were treated as concubines of the shogun if they bore his children. One such example was Otama, the daughter of a grocer, who gave birth to the fifth shogun, [[Tokugawa Ietsuna]]. The ''ōoku'' was also used to ensure the Tokugawa shogun's rule over the country by arranging political marriages between the shogun's children and the children of daimyo in various regions. The ''ōoku'' continued until 1868, when the Tokugawa shogunate was dissolved.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://intojapanwaraku.com/rock/culture-rock/175393/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230610182314/https://intojapanwaraku.com/rock/culture-rock/175393/|script-title=ja:大奥とは？徳川幕府を支えた“女たちの最前線”を3分で解説|language=ja|publisher=[[Shogakukan]]|date=5 October 2021|archive-date=10 June 2023|access-date=9 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="ōokurekishi">{{cite web|url=https://www.rekishijin.com/26719|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230609045246/https://www.rekishijin.com/26719|script-title=ja:勤務先が男子禁制の大奥!? 大奥に出入りできた男性たち|language=ja|publisher=Rekishijin|date=29 March 2023|archive-date=9 June 2023|access-date=11 March 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rekishijin.com/14797|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328125645/https://www.rekishijin.com/14797|script-title=ja:徳川家の将軍は思うがままに性を享楽できなかった？「大奥の床事情」|language=ja|publisher=Rekishijin|date=1 October 2021|archive-date=28 March 2023|access-date=9 March 2024}}</ref>

The [[Owari Tokugawa family|Owari]], [[Kishū Tokugawa family|Kishū (Kii)]], and [[Mito Tokugawa family|Mito]] Tokugawa families, called the {{nihongo3|the Three Houses of the Tokugawa|御三家|[[gosanke]]}}, founded by the children of Tokugawa Ieyasu, were the second most prestigious family after the shogun's family, and if the shogun's family failed to produce an heir, a male member of one of the three families was installed as shogun. For example, the 8th shogun, [[Tokugawa Yoshimune]], and the 14th shogun, [[Tokugawa Iemochi]], were originally heads of the Kishū Tokugawa family.<ref name="gosanke">{{cite web|url=https://www.meihaku.jp/tokugawagosanke-gosankyo/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221108125613/https://www.meihaku.jp/tokugawagosanke-gosankyo/|script-title=ja:徳川御三家・徳川御三卿|language=ja|publisher=The Nagoya Japanese sword Museum Nagoya Touken World|date=|archive-date=8 November 2022|access-date=9 March 2024}}</ref>

In order to keep the shogun's lineage alive, the 8th Shogun, Yoshimune, had his children establish the Tayasu, Hitotsubashi, and Shimizu Tokugawa families, which were called the {{nihongo3|Three Lords|御三卿|[[gosankyō]]}} and were treated as the second most prestigious daimyo after the ''Gosanke''. Of these, the Hitotsubashi Tokugawa family produced the 11th shogun, [[Tokugawa Ienari]]. His son [[Tokugawa Ieyoshi]] became the 12th shogun, and Ieyoshi's son [[Tokugawa Iesada]] became the 13th shogun. [[Tokugawa Yoshinobu]] became the 15th shogun after being adopted by the Hitotsubashi Tokugawa family from the Mito Tokugawa family.<ref name="gosanke"/> The head of ''Gosankyō'' had the privilege of entering the ''ōoku'', where men were forbidden.<ref name="ōokurekishi"/>