Although he was evaluated as a cool-headed realist, there were also the cases, as described in the following, in which he was swayed by emotion: When a child of Yoshinobu NATSUME, who had been killed in place of Ieyasu in the Battle of Mikatagahara, violated a rule, Ieyasu pardoned him by a special procedure beyond the law, and Ieyasu also spared Masayuki SANADA's life responding to Tadakatsu HONDA's desperate appeal.
情を排する冷徹な現実主義者との評価がある一方、三方ヶ原の戦いで家康の身代わりとなって討死した夏目吉信の子が規律違反を犯しても超法規的に赦し、本多忠勝の決死の嘆願で真田昌幸を助命するなど、感情に流されるケースもある。