In his Ogosho era, he employed, based on competence, priests, merchants and scholars in addition to samurai, and furthermore, William Adams, an Englishman (it was only Ieyasu who gave a foreigner a territory as a samurai), to establish the base of the Edo bakufu.
大御所時代には武士のみならず僧・商人・学者、更には英国人・ウィリアム・アダムス（武士として知行を与えたのは家康のみ）と実力も考慮して登用し、江戸幕府の基礎を作り上げていった。