Tokugawa Yoshimune
1684 – 1751 · 67 years · Edo · Asia
Reign: 1716 – 1745 (Japan: shoguns & emperors)
Shogun 1716–1745. His Kyōhō Reforms cut spending and repaired the treasury; his care for rice prices earned him the name 'Rice Shogun'. He set up a petition box and in 1720 eased the ban on European books, opening the way for 'Dutch learning'.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Kanō Tadanobu · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 1 year younger
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 10 years younger
- Isaac Newton — English physicist and mathematician, 41 years older
- Louis XIV — King of France, the Sun King, 46 years older
- Carl Linnaeus — Swedish naturalist, 23 years younger
- Louis XV — king under whom France lost Canada, 26 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Peter the Great — first Emperor of Russia, 12 years older
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 27 years younger
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 45 years younger
- Vitus Bering — Danish explorer in Russian service, 3 years older
- Anna — empress who tore up the Conditions; era of Biron's dominance, 9 years younger
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 23 years younger
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 4 years younger
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 11 years older
- Mahmud I — sultan who regained Belgrade by the 1739 peace, 12 years younger
- Osman III — sultan who spent 50 years in the 'cage', 15 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 19 years younger
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 33 years younger
Africa
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 39 years older
- Osei Tutu I — founder of the Ashanti Empire, 24 years older
- Kimpa Vita — Kongolese prophet, born the same year
Asia
- Kangxi Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 30 years older
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 27 years younger
- Tokugawa Tsunayoshi — the 'Dog Shogun' who outlawed cruelty to animals, 38 years older
- Aurangzeb — Mughal emperor, 66 years older
- Matsuo Bashō — Japanese poet, 40 years older
- Tokugawa Ieshige — ailing shogun whose speech only one courtier understood, 28 years younger
Americas
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 22 years younger
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 48 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 54 years younger
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz — Mexican poet and nun, 36 years older
- Aleijadinho — Brazilian sculptor and architect, 46 years younger
- John Adams — 2nd US president, one of the Founding Fathers, 51 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 44 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 41 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 54 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1687 Newton's Principia — aged 3, Europe
- 1688–1689 Glorious Revolution — aged 4, Europe
- 1703 Founding of Saint Petersburg — aged 19, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1709 Battle of Poltava — aged 25, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1721 Proclamation of the Russian Empire — aged 37, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 63, Middle East