Motoyasu Matsudaira is the current Daimyo of Mikawa and the future Ieyasu Tokugawa. She was a meek servant of Yoshimoto Imagawa until the Battle of Okehazama. After the Imagawa were defeated at Okehazama, she gained independence and joined Nobuna Oda's alliance. As a military genius and opportunist she quickly rose to the second most powerful person within the alliance. She currently aids Nobuna Oda during her war against the Asakura and Azai Faction.
She is depicted as a shy but intelligent person. Due to having been the Oda clan's prisoner in her youth she is afraid of Nobuna, causing her to be shockingly obedient towards her. She seems to be easily bullied, having fallen under a different lord's power twice. This treatment gave her something of a "trigger" where if something truly manages to anger her she goes into a persistent and unrelenting state of anger built up over her time of being pushed around, even Hanzo cannot reason with her in this state. She also expresses the desire to change her name to Tokugawa, but desires to first prove herself worthy of the title. Her greatest frustration is her inability to function as an independent in any of her campaigns and the lack of respect she recieves from others, which causes her to feel inferior; towards this mindset however, both Yoshiharu and Takeda Shingen note that her potential in later life is high due to these very experiences.
She's also quite devious, especially towards Yoshimoto, who she tricked into signing a disadvantageous contract with Nobuna. She is also not above considering using Nobuna's feelings for Yoshiharu as a means to manipulate her.
She appears to trust and respect Yoshiharu on a professional level, as well as somewhat admire him. The only two capable of reasoning with her when she is enraged appear to be him and, for very different reasons, her enemy, Takeda Shingen.
Background[]
Motoyasu Matsudaira's early life was marked by setbacks and problems. In her childhood she was captured by the Oda clan, where she became a childhood friend of Nobuna, however Nobuna's actions towards her, namely setting her on fire, grilling her, and other such "games" left a lasting fear in Motoyasu's heart. Inuchiyo would regularly save her by pushing her into a river. Her childhood itself can be described as being passed around like a football, she is not supremely confident.
Eventually Motoyasu learned that winning by deceit, betrayal and sabotage was better than to lose and to die in honor. The head of the Matsudaira clan became a ruthless opportunist. To achieve her goal to unite Mikawa, she gathered a elite unit of mercenary ninjas. One of these ninjas, Hanzou Hattori, would become her right-hand man and most trusted retainer.
However, when Motoyasu began to gain upper the upper hand in the conflicts with the other Mikawa lords, Yoshimoto Imagawa, Daimyo of Suruga and conqueror of Totomi invaded Mikawa due to the alliance of some lords with the Oda clan in Owari. The local lords were unable to stop the Imagawa army with brute force, and one by one they were defeated and killed. Motoyasu eventually surrendered to Yoshimoto and became her retainer, though it's clear that the latter feels only that she is am expendable pawn.
Motoyasu acting as goalkeeper to please Yoshimoto.
"I'm terrible sorry... We almost had her and then somebody interfered." - Motoyasu Matsudaira justifying her failure in front of Yoshimoto Imagawa.
Yoshimoto Imagawa quickly recognized her talent and made Motoyasu her personal servant, on the one hand to use her military genius best, on the other hand to keep an eye on the Mikawa "country samurai".
Arrival in the Sengoku Period Arc[]
She first appears on Yoshimoto's order to execute Yoshiharu, who stumbled into their camp. However he escapes from her and eventually meets up with Oda Nobuna herself and becomes her footsoldier.
In the anime Motoyasu also wasted the unique opportunity to kill Yoshimoto’s arch-enemy Nobuna Oda during this attack, but this is absent from the Light Novels. The Imagawa Daiymo reprimanded her general for this failure and cut her pay as punishment. Both did not know at the time that the man who had rescued Nobuna, Yoshiharu Sagara, should soon become the most important Oda general.
Soon afterwards, Yoshimoto recognized the chance to defeat the Oda Faction when Nobuna's army moved from the borders between Oda and Imagawa territory northward to Mino, in an attempt to save Yoshiharu Sagara and Dousan Saitou, the Daiymo of Mino from Saitou rebel forces. Using the absence of the Oda army, the Imagawa forces invaded Owari with a gigantic army of over 25.000 men, also including the vassals from Mikawa.
Motoyasu ordering the attack on Marune castle.
Yoshimoto ordered the Mikawa samurai to destroy the Oda fortresses in Owari as the vanguard for the Imagawa army. In doing so, Motoyasu besieged Marune and Washidzu together with Yasutomo Asahina. Washidzu was soon taken, but Marune withstood the attacks. Changing her tactic, Motoyasu ordered her ninjas to sabotage the Oda troops. However, not until Hanzou Hattori personally destroyed the provisions and gunpowder of the defenders, Marune could be taken and was burned down. After this success, Motoyasu received the order from Yoshimoto to push forward, even though the Mikawa troops would only be able to take Kiyosu at great cost without support by the Imagawa main army. This, however, was in Yoshimoto’s interest, since she did not wanted to let anything harm her main army.
Nevgertheless, Motoyasu did as ordered. However, her second-in-command Hanzou Hattori was less loyal to the Imagawa and questioned Yoshimoto's leadership. When the Oda general Yoshitatsu Sagara who was from the future found Yoshimoto's basement in the valley of Okehazama, he tried to deliver the information to Nobuna. Yoshiharu's entourage was confronted by ninjas led by Hanzou Hattori. Despite Sagara's men holding them off, Hanzou ultimately captured Yoshiharu but the latter managed to convince Hanzou to let him go as if Yoshimoto would be defeated, his master, Motoyasu Matsudaira, would no longer be a vassal of the Imagawa clan and suffer from Yoshimoto's bad leadership.
Shortly afterwards Yoshimoto's army was crushed in a surprise attack and the Imagawa Daiymo surrendered to Nobuna and the Oda Faction, ending the war. As promised, Motoyasu gained independence by Nobuna.
Motoyasu listening to Yoshitatsu during the meeting of Nobuna's alliance after Okehazama.
Invasion of Mino Arc[]
As new ruler of Mikawa, she allied with Nobuna and joined her quest for the unification of Japan. To Motoyasu's surprise, Nobuna even recognized her as an equal ally. During the meeting she also met Yoshiharu for the second time, but chooses not to bring it up since the first time she met him she tried to behead him. She ultimately recognises Yoshiharu's bravery for challenging Nobuna, in their usual Tsundere routine, before they're interrupted by Azai Nagamasa. From then Motoyasu watches on as Nagamasa proposes to Nobuna as part of an alliance to take on Mino, which leads to yet another skit between Nobuna and Yoshiharu, who she suspiciously wants to defend her chastity in the argument. The two of them end up arguing so much that Inuchiyo is forced to ask Nagamasa to return home and wait for their reply. Nobuna, realising Nagamasa has left, knocks Yoshiharu down and leaves. Soon after, Motoyasu applauds Yoshiharu, as his antics allowed them to resolve the matter for a time without answering Nagamasa directly. She notes that Nobuna is trying to delay her marriage to Nagamasa, as if she does marry him she'll forever be beneath him in power due to the fact her clan is weaker than his clan, but if she conquers Mino alone and without his help she can stand on equal terms with him in alliance and will not need to marry him. She then notes that she might have discovered a trump card against Nobuna thanks to him(Namely she realises Nobuna is in love with him) and Yoshiharu walks away to confront Nagamasa.
Miyoshi Three Arc[]
A shocked Motoyasu witnessing the faked "death" of Yoshiharu.
Following Yoshiharu's warning to retreat from the impending Azai-Asakura army, Motoyasu decides to leave Hanzo to act as Yoshiharu's Ninja in place of the absent Goemon. Later, she returns with the intent of rescuing him and witnesses his "death", as well as Mitsuhide's "death" Hanzo then takes her away from danger, valuing his master's life over Yoshiharu's, and informs her of the reality behind his survival. Upon her second return to rescue the injured Yoshiharu, she and her group did so by stealing uniforms from the dead Azai-Asakura soldiers and snuck into the territory, she and the rest of her group located him and Akechi Mitsuhide alive inside a cave together.
Tiger of Kai Arc[]
Motoyasu's was the primary force to opose the Takeda Army's advance, at this time the Oda army was confronted with the Azai-Asakura once more and left unable to reinforce her. Yoshiharu arrived, along with reinforcements from Iga and several missionaries, who, as pascifists, served only to scare the Takeda army with their large fleet of trade ships. Yoshiharu, believing the Takeda's legendary chivalry couldn't really exist, due to the beliefs of the modern day that Japanese horses couldn't reach such a size, planned to call Takeda's bluff, but was shocked to realise the chivalry was very real. After this, Yoshiharu planned to speak with Takeda directly, which he accomplished by sneaking into her hot spring. During their conversation he accidentally warned her about and ultimately foiled her historic death, which turned out to be Hanzo's assassination attempt. Upon his return, Yoshiharu admits to this mistake and the group begins to make plans to confront Takeda's advance, now unavoidable due to her survival. However, Takeda completely ignores them and presses on to Mino. Insulted and enraged by Shingen's blantant lack of interest in her, Motoyasu gives in to the feelings of dissatisfaction she had harboured over time and pursues her army in a rage. When she meets Shingen's army, she finds herself staring up a mountain towards the fully prepared Takeda chivalry and realises that she has fallen for a trap. her army is routed and forced into retreat, with her life only being saved by Yoshiharu's swift intervention.
Later, due to Yoshiharu's encouragement, Motoyasu overcomes her feelings of inferiority and gathers her remaining soldiers to once again confront Shingen, ultimately surrounding the latter's army between her forces and the Oda forces. the "God of War" and "Ally of Justice", Kenshin, also arrives to bolster Motoyasu's ranks, effectively placing their forces in a deadlock with the Takeda army. With Date Masamune stirring trouble for her homeland in Kai and her strategist also dying from illness on the battlefield, Takeda Shingen ultimately retreats on December 25th, thus ending the deadlock without any further confrontation.
Harem King Arc[]
Trivia[]
She is based on Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of the Three Unifiers of Japan (Others being Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi). Her name is also based on one of Ieyasu's former names, includes,
Matsudaira Takechiyo – his childhood name
Matsudaira Jirōsaburō Motonobu – his coming-of-age name (appelative/middle name and real name)
Matsudaira Kurandonosuke Motoyasu – after his first marriage (appelative/middle name and real name)
