The heads of the Owari Tokugawa family, which ranked higher than the Kishu Tokugawa family, died one after another at a young age, which made the age of Yoshimune closest to Ieyasu; some people suspect that it would have been plotted.
御三家の中では格上であった尾張徳川家の当主が相次いで若くして病死したために、吉宗が家康に最も近い世代になったのであるが、そのため陰謀を疑う向きもある。