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Japan: Crest of the Tokugawa Clan, rulers of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1868).

Japan: Crest of the Tokugawa Clan, rulers of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1868).

The Tokugawa clan (Tokugawa-shi) was a powerful daimyo family of Japan. They are nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and were a branch of the Minamoto clan (Seiwa Genji) by the Nitta clan. The clan rose to power at the end of the Sengoku period, and to the end of the Edo period they ruled Japan as shoguns. In all, there were fifteen Tokugawa shoguns. Their dominance was so strong that some history books use the term 'Tokugawa era' instead of 'Edo period'. Their principal family shrine is the Tōshō-gū in Nikkō, and their principal temple is at Kan'ei-ji in Tokyo. Tokugawa's clan crest, known in Japanese as a mon, is the triple asarum or wild ginger.

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