Toyotomi Hideyoshi

On June 21, 1582, Oda Nobunaga was killed by the forces of the traitorous Akechi Mitsuhide. This occurred in Honnō-ji temple in Kyoto, ending Nobunaga's quest to consolidate centralized power in Japan under his authority.

After the assassinations at Honnō-ji of Oda Nobunaga and his eldest son Nobutada at the hands of Akechi Mitsuhide, Hideyoshi seeking vengeance for the death of his lord, made peace with the Mōri clan and thirteen days later Hideyoshi met Mitsuhide and defeated him at Battle of Yamazaki, avenging his lord (Nobunaga) and taking Nobunaga's authority and power for himself.[11]^:275–279

In 1582, Hideyoshi began construction of Osaka Castle. Built on the site of the temple Ishiyama Hongan-ji destroyed by Nobunaga,[13] the castle would become the last stronghold of the Toyotomi clan after Hideyoshi's death.[14]

In 1583, Subsequently, Hideyoshi was in a very strong position. He summoned the powerful daimyo to Kiyosu so that they could determine Nobunaga's heir. Oda Nobukatsu and Oda Nobutaka quarreled, causing Hideyoshi to instead choose Samboshi, Nobu's grandson.[15] Having won the support of the other two Oda elders, Niwa Nagahide and Ikeda Tsuneoki, Hideyoshi established Hidenobu's position, as well as his own influence in the Oda clan. He distributed Nobunaga's provinces among the generals and formed a council of four generals to help govern. Tension quickly escalated between Hideyoshi and Katsuie, and at the Battle of Shizugatake in the following year, Hideyoshi destroyed Katsuie's forces.[16] Hideyoshi had thus consolidated his own power, dealt with most of the Oda clan, and controlled 30 provinces.[8]^:313–314 The famous kirishitan daimyō and samurai Dom Justo Takayama fought on his side at this epic battle.

In 1584, Nobunaga's other son, Oda Nobukatsu, remained hostile to Hideyoshi. Nobukatsu allied himself with Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the two sides fought at the inconclusive Battle of Komaki and Nagakute. It ultimately resulted in a stalemate, although Hideyoshi's forces were delivered a heavy blow.[7] Ieyasu and Hideyoshi never actually fought against each other themselves but the former managed to check the advance of the latter's allies[17].Finally, Hideyoshi made peace with Nobukatsu, ending the pretext for war between the Tokugawa and Hashiba clans. Hideyoshi sent Tokugawa Ieyasu his younger sister Asahi no kata and mother Ōmandokoro as hostages. Ieyasu eventually agreed to become an ally of Hideyoshi.

Like Nobunaga before him, Hideyoshi never achieved the title of shōgun. Instead, he arranged to have himself adopted by Konoe Sakihisa, one of the noblest men belonging to the Fujiwara clan and secured a succession of high court titles Chancellor (Daijō-daijin), including, in 1585, the prestigious position of Imperial Regent (kampaku).[18] In 1586, Hideyoshi was formally given the new clan name Toyotomi (instead of Fujiwara) by the Imperial court.[7] He built a lavish palace, the Jurakudai, in 1587 and entertained the reigning Emperor, Emperor Go-Yōzei, the following year.[19]

Afterwards in 1585, Hideyoshi launch Siege of Negoro-ji and subjugated Kii Province.[22] The Negoro-gumi, the warrior monks of Negoro-ji, were quite skilled in the use of firearms, and were devout followers of Shingi, a branch of the Shingon sect of Buddhism. They were allied with the Ikkō-ikki, and with Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of Toyotomi's chief rivals. In particular, they attracted Hideyoshi's ire for their support of Tokugawa in the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute the previous year. After attacking a number of other warrior monk outposts in the area, Hideyoshi's force turned to the Negoro-ji, attacking it from two sides. The complex was set aflame, beginning with the residences of the priests, and Hideyoshi's samurai cut down monks as they escaped the blazing buildings.

In the 1585 invasion of Shikoku, Toyotomi forces seized and conquered Shikoku island, the smallest of Japan's four main islands, from Chōsokabe Motochika.[23] Toyotomi's forces arrived with 113,000 strength under Toyotomi Hidenaga, Toyotomi Hidetsugu, Ukita Hideie and Mōri clan "Two Rivers" Kobayakawa Takakage and Kikkawa Motoharu, against 40,000 men of Chōsokabe's. Despite the overwhelming size of Hideyoshi's army, and the suggestions of his advisors, Motochika chose to fight to defend his territories. The battles culminated in the siege of Ichinomiya Castle, which lasted for 26 days. Chōsokabe made a half-hearted attempt to relieve his castle from the siege, but surrendered in the end. He was allowed to keep Tosa Province, while the rest of Shikoku was divided among Hideyoshi's generals.

During the late summer of August 1585, Hideyoshi launched an attack on Etchū Province.[24] Toyotomi Hideyoshi carried out the Siege of Toyama castle. However, the Toyama castle garrison was led by Sassa Narimasa, one of his former allies many years back. Hideyoshi led his army of around 100,000 soldiers against the 20,000 men of the Sassa Narimasa forces; in the end however, Narimasa's defense was shattered, opening the way to for Toyotomi supremacy over Etchū Province.

In 1586 Toyotomi conquered Kyūshū, wresting control from the Shimazu clan.[25] Toyotomi Hidenaga, half-brother to Hideyoshi, landed to the south of Bungo on Kyūshū's eastern coast. Meanwhile, Hideyoshi took his own forces down a more westerly route, in Chikuzen Province. Later that year, with a total of 200,000 soldiers against the 30,000 men of the Shimazu forces, the two brothers would meet up in the Shimazu home province of Satsuma. They besieged Kagoshima castle, the Shimazu clan's home. The Shimazu surrendered, leaving Hideyoshi to return his attention to the Hōjō clan of Kantō, the last major clan to oppose him.

In 1587, Hideyoshi banished Christian missionaries from Kyūshū, to exert greater control over the Kirishitan daimyōs.[26] However, since he made much of trade with Europeans, individual Christians were overlooked unofficially.

In 1588, Hideyoshi forbade ordinary peasants from owning weapons and started a sword hunt to confiscate arms.[27] The swords were melted down to create a statue of the Buddha. This measure effectively stopped peasant revolts, and ensured greater stability at the expense of freedom of the individual daimyōs.

In 1590, Hideyoshi carried out the Siege of Odawara against the Hōjō clan in the Kantō region.[28] With 220,000 men, the massive army of Toyotomi Hideyoshi surrounded Odawara Castle and its 82,000-strong Hōjō garrison, in what has been called "the most unconventional siege lines in samurai history". The samurai were entertained by everything from concubines, prostitutes, and musicians to acrobats, fire-eaters, and jugglers. The defenders slept on the ramparts with their arquebuses and armor; despite their smaller numbers, they discouraged Hideyoshi from attacking. After three months the Hōjō surrendered, losing the will to fight after the sudden appearance of Ishigakiyama Ichiya Castle.

This eliminated the last resistance to Hideyoshi's authority. His victory signified the end of the Sengoku period. During the siege Hideyoshi offered Ieyasu the eight Hōjō-ruled provinces in the Kantō region, in exchange for the submission of Ieyasu's five provinces. Ieyasu accepted this proposal.

In February 1591, Hideyoshi ordered Sen no Rikyū to commit suicide, likely in one of his angry outbursts.[29] Rikyū had been a trusted retainer and master of the tea ceremony under both Hideyoshi and Nobunaga. Under Hideyoshi's patronage, Rikyū made significant changes to the aesthetics of the tea ceremony that had a lasting influence over many aspects of Japanese culture. Even after Rikyū's death, Hideyoshi is said to have built his many construction projects based upon aesthetics promoted by Rikyū, perhaps suggesting that he regretted his actions.

Following Rikyū's death, Hideyoshi turned his attention from tea ceremony to Noh, which he had been studying since becoming Imperial Regent. During his brief stay in Nagoya Castle in what is today Saga Prefecture, on Kyūshū, Hideyoshi memorized the shite (lead role) parts of ten Noh plays, which he then performed, forcing various daimyōs to accompany him onstage as the waki (secondary, accompanying role). He even performed before the emperor.[30]

The Kunohe Rebellion was a rebellion in the Sengoku period of Japan, that occurred in Mutsu Province from 13 March to 4 September 1591.

Kunohe Masazane, a claimant to daimyō of the Nanbu clan, launched a rebellion against his rival Nanbu Nobunao backed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi which spread across Mutsu Province. Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu sent a large army into the Tōhoku region in mid-1591 which quickly defeated the rebels and Hideyoshi's army arrived at Kunohe Castle in early September. Masazane was outnumbered and surrendered Kunohe Castle but he and the castle defenders were executed. The Kunohe Rebellion was the final battle in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's campaigns during the Sengoku period and completed the unification of Japan.[31]

The future stability of the Toyotomi dynasty after Hideyoshi's eventual death was put in doubt with the death of his son Tsurumatsu in September 1591. The three-year-old was his only child. When his half-brother Hidenaga died shortly after, Hideyoshi named his nephew Hidetsugu his heir, adopting him in January 1592. Hideyoshi resigned as kampaku to take the title of taikō (retired regent). Hidetsugu succeeded him as kampaku.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi's armor

With Hideyoshi's health beginning to falter, but still yearning for some accomplishment to solidify his legacy, he adopted Oda Nobunaga's dream of a Japanese conquest of China and launched the conquest of the Ming dynasty by way of Korea (at the time known as Koryu or Joseon).[32]

Hideyoshi had been communicating with the Koreans since 1587 requesting unmolested passage into China. As an ally of Ming China, the Joseon government of the time at first refused talks entirely, and in April and July 1591 also refused demands that Japanese troops be allowed to march through Korea. The government of Joseon was concerned that allowing Japanese troops to march through Korea (Joseon) would mean that masses of Ming Chinese troops would battle Hideyoshi's troops on Korean soil before they could reach China, putting Korean security at risk. In August 1591, Hideyoshi ordered preparations for an invasion of Korea to begin.

In the first campaign, Hideyoshi appointed Ukita Hideie as field marshal, and had him go to the Korean peninsula in April 1592. Konishi Yukinaga occupied Seoul, which had been the capital of the Joseon dynasty of Korea, on June 19. After Seoul fell easily, Japanese commanders held a war council in June in Seoul and determined targets of subjugation called Hachidokuniwari (literally, dividing the country into eight routes) by each corps (the First Division of Konishi Yukinaga and others from Pyeongan Province, the Second Division of Katō Kiyomasa and others from Hangyong Province, the Third Division of Kuroda Nagamasa and others from Hwanghae Province, the Fourth Division of Mōri Katsunaga and others from Gangwon Province; the Fifth Division of Fukushima Masanori and others from Chungcheong Province; the Sixth Division by Kobayakawa Takakage and others from Jeolla Province, the Seventh Division by Mōri Terumoto and others from Gyeongsang Province, and the Eighth Division of Ukita Hideie and others from Gyeonggi Province).

In only four months, Hideyoshi's forces had a route into Manchuria and occupied much of Korea. The Korean king Seonjo of Joseon escaped to Uiju and requested military intervention from China. In 1593, the Wanli Emperor of Ming China sent an army under general Li Rusong to block the planned Japanese invasion of China and recapture the Korean peninsula. The Ming army of 43,000 soldiers headed by Li Ru-song proceeded to attack Pyongyang. On January 7, 1593, the Ming relief forces under Li recaptured Pyongyang and surrounded Seoul, but Kobayakawa Takakage, Ukita Hideie, Tachibana Muneshige and Kikkawa Hiroie won the Battle of Byeokjegwan in the suburbs of Seoul. At the end of the first campaign, Japan's entire navy was destroyed by Admiral Yi Sun-sin of Korea whose base was located in a part of Korea the Japanese could not control. This, in effect, put an end to Japan's dream of conquering China as the Koreans simply destroyed Japan's ability to re-supply their troops who were bogged down in Pyongyang.

Toyotomi Hideyori

The birth of Hideyoshi's second son in 1593, Hideyori, created a potential succession problem. To avoid it, Hideyoshi exiled his nephew and heir Hidetsugu to Mount Kōya and then ordered him to commit suicide in August 1595. Hidetsugu's family members who did not follow his example were then murdered in Kyoto, including 31 women and several children.[33]

In January 1597, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had twenty-six Christians arrested as an example to Japanese who wanted to convert to Christianity. They are known as the Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan. They included five European Franciscan missionaries, one Mexican Franciscan missionary, three Japanese Jesuits and seventeen Japanese laymen including three young boys. They were tortured, mutilated, and paraded through towns across Japan. On February 5, they were executed in Nagasaki by public crucifixion.[34]

The 26 Christian martyrs of Nagasaki, 18–19th-century, Choir of La Recoleta, Cuzco

After several years of negotiations (broken off because envoys of both sides falsely reported to their masters that the opposition had surrendered), Hideyoshi appointed Kobayakawa Hideaki to lead a renewed invasion of Korea, but their efforts on the peninsula met with less success than the first invasion. Japanese troops remained pinned down in Gyeongsang Province. In June 1598, the Japanese forces turned back several Chinese offensives in Suncheon and Sacheon, but they were unable to make further progress as the Ming army prepared for a final assault. While Hideyoshi's battle at Sacheon was a major Japanese victory, all three parties to the war were exhausted. He told his commander in Korea, "Don't let my soldiers become spirits in a foreign land."[2]

Hideyoshi sitting with his wives and concubines.

• Nene, or One, later Kōdai-in. Wife.
• Yodo-dono, or Chacha, later Daikōin, daughter of Azai Nagamasa
• Minami-dono, daughter of Yamana Toyokuni
• Minami no Tsubone, daughter of Yamana Toyokuni
• Matsu no Maru-dono or Kyōgoku Tatsuko, daughter of Kyōgoku Takayoshi
• Kaga-dono or Maahime, daughter of Maeda Toshiie
• Kaihime, daughter of Narita Ujinaga
• Kusu no Tsubone later Hokoin, daughter of Azai Nagamasa
• Sonnomaru-dono, daughter of Oda Nobunaga
• Sanjo-dono or Tora, daughter of Gamō Katahide
• Himeji-dono, daughter of Oda Nobukane
• Hirozawa no Tsubone, daughter of Kunimitsu Kyosho
• Ōshima or Shimako later Gekkein, daughter of Ashikaga Yorizumi
• Anrunkin or Otane no Kata
• Ofuku later Enyu-in, daughter of Miura Noto no Kami and mother of Ukita Hideie

Hashiba Hidekatsu (Ishimatsumaru)

• Hashiba Hidekatsu (Ishimatsumaru) (1570–1576) by Minami-dono
• Daughter

Tsurumatsu

• Toyotomi Tsurumatsu (1589–1591) by Yodo-dono
• Toyotomi Hideyori by Yodo-dono

• Hashiba Hidekatsu (Tsugaru), fourth son of Oda Nobunaga
• Oda Nobutaka later Toyotomi Takahiro (1576–1602), seventh son of Oda Nobunaga
• Oda Nobuyoshi later Toyotomi Musashi more (1573–1615), eight son of Oda Nobunaga
• Oda Nobuyoshi (d. 1609), tenth son of Oda Nobunaga
• Ukita Hideie, son of Ukita Naoie
• Toyotomi Hidetsugu, first son of Hideyoshi's sister, Tomo with Miyoshi Kazumichi
• Toyotomi Hidekatsu (1569–1592), second son of Hideyoshi's sister, Tomo with Miyoshi Kazumichi
• Toyotomi Hideyasu (1579–1595), Third son of Hideyoshi's sister, Tomo with Miyoshi Kazumichi
• Yūki Hideyasu, Tokugawa Ieyasu's second son
• Ikeda Nagayoshi, third son of Ikeda Nobuteru
• Kobayakawa Hideaki, Hideyoshi's nephew from his wife, Nene
• Prince Hachijō Toshihito, sixth son of Prince Masahito

• Gohime (1574–1634), daughter of Maeda Toshiie and married Ukita Hideie
• O-hime (1585–1591), daughter of Oda Nobukatsu and married Tokugawa Hidetada
• Oeyo, daughter of Azai Nagamasa and married Saji Kazunari, Toyotomi Hidekatsu, Tokugawa Hidetada
• Konoe Sakiko, daughter of Konoe Sakihisa and married Emperor Go-Yōzei
• Chikurin-in, daughter of Ōtani Yoshitsugu and married to Sanada Yukimura. They had two sons, Sanada Daisuke and Sanada Daihachi, and some daughters. Known as Akihime and Riyohime
• Toyotomi Sadako (1592–1658), daughter of Toyotomi Hidekatsu with Oeyo later become the adopted daughter of Tokugawa Hidetada and married Kujō Yukiie
• Daizen-in, daughter of Toyotomi Hidenaga and married Mōri Hidemoto
• Kikuhime, daughter of Toyotomi Hidenaga and married Toyotomi Hideyasu
• Maeda Kikuhime (1578–1584), daughter of Maeda Toshiie

• Toyotomi Kunimatsu
• Tenshuni (天秀尼) (1609–1645)