Tokugawa Tsunayoshi

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (born Feb. 23, 1646, Edo, Japan—died Feb. 19, 1709, Edo) was the fifth Tokugawa shogun of Japan, known as the “Dog Shogun” because of his obsession with dogs.

Proclaimed shogun in 1680, Tsunayoshi presided over one of the most prosperous and peaceful periods in Japanese history. His major accomplishments were in cultural affairs, in which he worked to promote the Neo-Confucianism of the 12th-century Chinese scholar Chu Hsi, whose philosophy emphasized loyalty to the government as man’s first duty. Toward the end of his career, however, Tsunayoshi tended to ignore the duties of government for the pleasures of his palace, and the government became somewhat lax and at times eccentric, as evident in his notorious decrees relating to the welfare of dogs.

Born in the Year of the Dog, Tsunayoshi was influenced by a Buddhist monk who told him he had been a dog in his previous existence. As a result, Tsunayoshi decreed the death penalty for anyone who harmed a dog, insisted that dogs be addressed only in honorific terms, and kept an estimated 50,000 of them at government expense, feeding them on a choice diet of rice and dried fish.