2006-02-18T15:30:00.000-08:00

Arima Harunobu
Harunobu was the daimyô of the Arima clan, a small family that controlled the Shimabara area of Hizen province. Arima Yoshisada's son and successor, Harunobu began a persecution of the Christians in his domain after his father's death. In 1579, with Ryûzôji Takanobu expanding into the area, Harunobu - like his uncle Ômura Sumitada - turned to the Jesuits for assistance. In return, he was baptized as Protasio and ended the persecution. The arrival of Portuguese weapons and ships bought the Arima a little time, but in 1582 Harunobu lost his important Shimabara Castle and was reduced to holding a thin strip of the peninsula. In desperation, he turned to the Shimazu clan, presently at war with the Ryûzôji in Higo province. The Shimazu dispatched a force under Shimazu Iehisa to Shimabara and in 1584 they and the Arima, with a combined 3,000 men, defeated the much larger Ryûzôji army at Okitanawate, a battle in which Takanobu was killed. Afterwards Shimazu Yoshihisa suggested the Arima renounce Christianity but did not press the issue when Harunobu declined.
Arima attached himself to Toyotomi Hideyoshi after the latter invaded Kyushu (1587) and in 1593 led some 2,000 men to Korea under Konishi Yukinaga. Harunobu supported the Western side in the Sekigahara Campaign (1600) but did not suffer the loss of any land as a result.
In 1609 Harunobu was sent on an expedition to Formosa (Taiwan) with the intention of scouting out a potential trade center for Japanese, Chinese, and Western ships. When they arrived, the island's inhabitants set upon Arima's men and a fair number of them were killed. (The next attempt to conquer this island, in 1616 and evidently led by the Ômura, also ended in failure)
Harunobu was involved in the Pessoa incident of 1609 (in which a Portuguese ship was attacked and destroyed at Nagasaki) and was rewarded for his efforts; in 1612, however, he fell out with Tokugawa Ieyasu and was executed on the grounds of treason.
Harunobu was succeded by his son Naozumi, a persecutor of Christians who was transferred to Hyûga in 1615 (Nobeoka, 53,000 koku).
Ômura Sumitada

1532-1587

The Ômura family traced it's roots back to the 10th Century, when Fujiwara (Ômura) Naozumi settled in Kyushu and later achieved a certain modicum of local influence. Following the Ônin War (1467-77) the Sonogi peninsula was divided into a myriad number of petty fiefdoms and the Ômura struggled for dominance. In 1474 the neighboring Arima dealt Ômura Sumiyoshi a defeat and afterwards exerted considerable influence over the Ômura clan. Ômura Sumisaki adopted a son of Arima Haruzumi, an event that was to cause the adoptee in question, Sumitada, much difficulty in his own rule. Haruzumi's natural son, Takaaki, had been disinherited in the move, and after ending up in the Goto clan was extremely hostile towards his former family. In fact, Sumitada had to contend with the resentments of a number of local lords, all of whom were in some way kinsmen, including Saigo Sumitaka (a brother-in-law) and Fukahori Sumikata. In addition, the Matsuura and Arima pressed the Ômura's borders; yet the greatest threat to Sumitada was Ryûzôji Takanobu, the most powerful daimyo in Hizen.

Faced with the seemingly inevitable fall of the Ômura, Sumitada turned to the only party that seemed capable of providing him with telling assistance - the Jesuits. In 1562 he allowed the Christian priests to preach in his domain and gave Portuguese traders special privileges in the port of Yokoseura; the following year Sumitada became the first Christian Daimyô, baptized with the name Dom Bartolomeu in June. Unfortunately, Ômura's religious and political workings initially bore bitter fruit; the same year Sumitada was baptized, Goto Takaaki rose against him and in the course of the struggle Yokoseura was destroyed. The event seemed to presage the fall of the Ômura, and in 1566 Sumitada was forced to flee Aonogi Castle - his headquarters. Yet the Portuguese returned and with the weapons they supplied, Sumitada was able to retake Sonogi and stabilized his position. Ômura managed to fend off his many rivals for the next two decades and Portuguese vessels continued to call at Ômura ports. To a greater or lesser extent the Ômura-Jesuit pact was beneficial to Sumitada, even if it provoked families already hostile to him. In 1572 Saigo Sumitaka led a coalition of Ômura's enemies against Sumitada, a threat Sumitada countered with the help of four Portuguese warships in 1574. From the Portuguese point of view, Sumitada's conversion was an encouraging development but not altogether fruitful-that is, until 1580. By that year, Ryûzôji Takanobu had become the most dynamic lord of northern Kyushu, and his advances into the Sonogi area compelled Sumitada to make a remarkable donation to the Jesuits. On 9 June he ceded rights to the port of Nagasaki, including the transfer of all judicial authority to the Jesuits.

This dramatic move followed in the wake of two Ryûzôji incursions (1577, 78) and was not made so much to preserve the survival of the Ômura house as to preserve the Christian presence in Hizen. Above and beyond any possible pious motivations, Sumitada stood to gain much through continued trade with the Portuguese, especially if this were combined with an end of the war with the Ryûzôji. Concerned that Takanobu would drive out the foreigners once the Ômura submitted, Sumitada officially 'gave' Nagasaki to the Jesuits, maintaining the rights to collect duty tariffs on the goods that passed through the port. Later that year, Ômura went to Saga and submitted to Ryûzôji.

Takanobu hesitated to confront the Portuguese directly, as the power of these 'Southern barbarians' was still something of an unknown element. Just as Sumitada had hoped, Takanobu left Nagasaki alone, leaving the Jesuits to report their unexpected boom to an amazed Rome.

Ômura was now a vassal of the Ryûzôji and finally allowed some breathing room. Takanobu turned his eye on the Arima of the Shimabara peninsula, a clan who, like the Ômura, had turned to the foreigners for assistance. In 1584 Shimazu Yoshihisa an expeditionary force to Shimabara to assist the reeling Arima, prompting Takanobu to personally lead an army to the area. Sumitada was summoned to lead his own men in support, but was late in taking to the road and managed to miss the decisive Battle of Okina wa date. Takanobu was killed during the battle and the political picture in Hizen changed drastically.

In 1587 Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Kyushu and the Ômura submitted, though they suffered the loss of the Nagasaki trade. Sumitada died that same year and was succeded by his son Yoshiaki (1568-1615). Like his father, Yoshiaki was a Christian, and in that capacity was known as Dom Sancho. Yoshiaki served in the 1592 Korean invasion, leading 1,000 men under Konishi Yukinaga. In 1600 he elected to remain neutral during the Sekigahara campaign and as a result was ordered to retire in favor of his son Suminobu. Although baptized in his youth, Suminobu persecuted those Christians still residing in Ômura and helped put down the Shimabara Rebellion (1637-38). The Ômura stood as a daimyo house until the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate and the abolishment of the han in the 19th Century.

___________________________________________________________________Compiled by F.W. Seal
Shimazu Yoshihisa was the eldest son of Shimazu Takahisa (1514-1571) and a lady of the Iriki-in family. As talented as his father, whom he succeded in 1566, Yoshihisa continued the long struggle to unify the fragmented Shimazu domain. To this end he was compelled to subdue both the Tomotsuki and Hisikari within the borders of Satsuma and Ôsumi while fighting hard to fend off advances from the outside lords Sagara and Ito. In these difficult endeavors Yoshihisa was well-served by his brothers (Yoshihiro, Iehisa, and Toshihisa) and his steadily growing retainer band, which included the noted generals Ijuin Tadamune, Niiro Tadamoto, and Uwai Akitane. Once he had defeated his rivals in Satsuma and Ôsumi, and brought around the Iriki-in and Togo to his side, Yoshihisa was able to concentrate on his greatest threat: Ito Yoshisuke. The latter controlled much of southern Hyûga, and from the vital castle of Obi was threatening the borders of the Shimazu domain. In 1572 the Shimazu and Ito fought a fierce battle at Kizakihara that saw 300 Shimazu defeat an Ito army of as many as 3,000. The conclusion of this battle saw the Ito seriously battered and Yoshihisa in a position to expand northward. Four years later Yoshihisa and his brothers led some 6,000 men into Hyûga and defeated the Ito again at Takabaru. The war was decisively turned against Yoshisuke in January 1578, when he suffered yet another defeat at Kamiya. Largely abandoned by his followers, the once-proud Ito lord fled to the lands of the Ôtomo and begged asylum. His former capital, Sadowara, was occupied soon afterwards by the Shimazu. The battles in southern Hyûga in 1578 had established Yoshihisa as a great warrior and had the additional benefit of increasing the confidence of his followers. Almost overnight, the ranks of the Shimazu swelled - and not a moment too soon, for the Ôtomo had taken notice of the disturbance on their southern border. Determined to nip the Shimazu menace in the bud, the father and son team of Ôtomo Sôrin and Yoshimune gathered a great army from the considerable Ôtomo domain (which included much of northern Kyushu) and marched into southern Hyûga. Yoshihisa had by now returned to Satsuma, having left his brother Iehisa with a thousand men to watch the border at Takajo. The advancing Ôtomo quickly crushed the pro-Shimazu lord (and former Ito vassal) Tsuchimochi Chikanari and occupied Matsuo Castle. The two Ôtomo lords lingered there after sending a relative, Tawara Chikataka, ahead with the main body. This invested Takajo, which Iehisa defended fiercely.
Learning of the dire threat in Hyûga, Yoshihisa hastily rallied his kinsmen and marched north to Sadowara, where he was briefly held up by bad weather. Meanwhile, his brother Yoshihiro, who was advancing along a different route, encountered and scattered an advance Ôtomo force, following up this success with the destruction of an enemy fort at Matsuyama. Yoshihisa then advanced to the Taka area, and joined with the rest of the Shimazu clan. The following battle was one of the lesser-known but more decisive of the 16th Century. Yoshihisa, with as many as 30,000 warriors, adopted a defensive posture, inviting an attack from the impetuous Tawara, who had no less then 60,000 men at his command. The attack did come, and it was nearly ruinous for the Shimazu: a number of generals were killed under the sheer weight of the charge, which tore deeply into the Shimazu army. It was at this moment, however, that Yoshihisa revealed his true qualities as a leader. Refusing to move his standard one-inch back, the lord of the Shimazu rallied his faltering men and turned the tables on the Ôtomo. With the enemy spearhead ground to a halt in front of him, Yoshihisa signaled for the men on the flanks to charge the Ôtomo flanks in a pincer movement while at this key moment, Iehisa led out a spirited foray from Takajo. The Ôtomo levies panicked and suddenly the battle had developed into a rout, with the Shimazu mercilessly riding won their defeated enemy as they fled north. Hundreds if not thousands were drowned attempting to cross the Mimigawa, after which the battle is called. Sources differ on the results of the slaughter but the cost to the Ôtomo may have been as many as 20,000 killed. Certainly, the Ôtomo would never again command the power they once had. Yoshihisa's reputation soared after Mimigawa, and the Shimazu strength grew. Confident that the Ôtomo would be of no account for the time being, he proceeded to strike a truce with them and marched into Higo. Many of the warriors there were in fact wise enough to see which way the wind was blowing and offered their fealty. An exception was Sagara Yoshiaki, who resisted a Shimazu request to march through his land in 1581. The result was the Siege of Minamata, which is described in the Iriki-in documents…
"The story of this campaign is as follows: the lord sent a message to Sagara dono, by the two envoys, saying that, since it was inconvenient to send by sea guards to Utsu dono and Zho dono [the lord's allies at Kumamoto], he wished to make them take a direct route overland [through Sagara's territory] in their journey to Higo; and that, if [the latter] agreed to this, he would henceforth be at peace with him. [Sagara] replied that that would never be permitted. Accordingly, with a view to cutting through the land route and sending guards to Utsu dono and Zho dono, first of all the lord pitched three camps at Minamata. Minamata was carried, and Ashikita, Nanaura, even Yatsushiro, were possessed [by the lord]. This was the first step of his entry into Higo."
The motivations for the Shimazu drive were simple but compelling. A larger - and hard-fighting - retainer band needed lands to be rewarded, and these could be gotten only through war. Of course, pure ambition likely played a significant role in Yoshihisa's wars; there is an enduring legend that Takahisa called on his son from his deathbed to bring all of Kyushu under the Shimazu banner. The Shimazu movements in Higo brought them up against the third of Kyushu's great warrior houses: the Ryûzôji. Led by the ruthless Takanobu, the latter had already subdued most of Hizen and Chikuzen and, taking advantage of the Ôtomo's woes, was happily claiming districts in Higo. In Takanobu Yoshihisa would find himself well matched, and their rivalry would develop into a stalemate. While the Shimazu worked to consolidate their hold over Southern Kyushu and hold on to their forts in Higo, the Ryûzôji were active on another front, forcing the smaller clans of the Shimabara area of Hizen to submit. Of these, the Arima offered a spirited but seemingly doomed resistance, with their lord Harunobu even converting to Christianity in the hope of receiving aid from the Jesuits. Receiving only marginal assistance from that quarter, he then sent messengers to the Shimazu pleading for help. In fact, Yoshihisa was skeptical that anything could be done for such a stricken clan, and that in any event sending assistance would not be worth the effort. However, Iehisa prevailed on him to accept the possibilities of using the Arima's plea to open a second front against the Ryûzôji. Nonetheless, an opportunity to actually dispatch a relief force to the Shimabara Peninsula did not present itself for some years, and by then Harunobu's straits were dire indeed. He had lost his main castle, and was reduced to a thin strip of land facing the sea. It was right into this difficult situation that Iehisa came, personally leading a contingent of 2,000 men across the waters. The Shimazu had finally moved just in time, as it turned out. Takanobu, perhaps aware of the Arima's dealings with the Shimazu, had organized a campaign to finish off the former once and for all. In early May 1584 some 20,000 Ryûzôji warriors marched south and into the Shimabara area, where they were opposed by a total of 3,000 Shimazu and Arima troops. Once again, the Shimazu were destined to prove themselves the master underdogs, winning a remarkable victory at the Battle of Okinawate. In the midst of the fighting, Takanobu and a number of his great retainers were struck down and the result was that the Shimazu had effectively eliminated the last real opposition on Kyushu to their dreams of conquest. Takanobu's successor, the rotund and ineffectual Masaie, offered a truce (that included the surrender of Ryûzôji lands in Higo), which Yoshihisa accepted as a prelude to a final push to destroy the Ôtomo. Unfortunately for the Shimazu, the aging Ôtomo Sorin played the final card in his hand, traveling to Osaka to beg for succor from Toyotomi Hideyoshi himself in 1585. Hideyoshi, who had conquered Shikoku the year before, saw this as a useful opportunity to flex some of his considerable political muscle and sent a letter demanding Shimazu cease his activities. To this first letter, the Shimazu merely responded that their campaign was in fact what might be called a proactive defensive move. The following year Hideyoshi issued an even stronger ultimatum that was nonetheless generous - if Yoshihisa would show his compliance, he would be allowed to retain half of Chikugo and Higo in addition to his lands in Hyûga, Satsuma, and Ôsumi. Yoshihisa rashly penned in reply a dismissive letter that contrasted the Shimazu's long history and Hideyoshi's humble roots. After all, this was not the first time that an outsider had attempted to interfere with affairs on Kyushu: Oda Nobunaga had made similar demands (perhaps hoping to keep the Ôtomo alive-and a threat to the Mori) before his death in 1582.
Hideyoshi Intervenes
Yoshihisa had made a grave mistake in his underestimation of Hideyoshi, but as 1586 drew to a close, the latter's threats may have seemed a moot point . With the Ôtomo everywhere retreating or switching sides, the occupation of the Ôtomo capital in Bungo, Funai, was only a matter of time. Perhaps hoping to buy back a little of that time to rally his great hosts, Hideyoshi dispatched a force to Bungo commanded by Chosokabe Motochika and Sengoku Hidehisa. Though these men were under orders to sit tight in the Ôtomo capital, Sengoku and Ôtomo Yoshimune, over Motochika's objections, decided to take the fight to the Shimazu. Their reasoning was that the Shimazu seemed to have drawn back to rest (as indeed they had) and this presented a fine opportunity to relieve Toshimitsu, a nearby castle currently under siege by Niiro Tadamoto. Unfortunately for the allies, Yoshihisa learned of their movements and hastened to the area. Toshimitsu was overrun, and Ôtomo and his allies were confronted with a Shimazu army. Motochika suggested they retreat to Funai, but was again ignored. Instead, Yoshimune decided to have a go at what seemed to be a reasonably manageable enemy force (unaware as he was that the bulk of the Shimazu were hidden in the hills across the Hetsugigawa). The fighting commenced with Sogo Nagayasu (a Shikoku warrior like Motochika) falling for a feint across the river by Ijuin Hisanori. The result of the battle was another Ôtomo defeat and the occupation of Bungo. Unfortunately for Yoshihisa, his moment of glory would be brief indeed. On 20 January 1587 Hashiba Hidenaga landed on Kyushu with as many as 60,000 men, followed by Kobayakawa Takakage and the Môri, who had with them a further 90,000. Faced with this mighty host and already streched to the limit, the Shimazu withdrew south rapidly, allowing Hidenaga to proceed with an advance along the eastern coast of the island. Hideyoshi himself arrived with yet another 30,000 in February and secured the submission of most of the warlords of the provinces conquered by the Shimazu in the past decade, including the Akizuki, Arima, Goto, Nabeshima, Ômura, and Ryûzôji. The Toyotomi progress was almost leisurely, especially since the only real Shimazu resistance would come at the Sendai River on 6 June, and this was in essence a show of simple defiance by the proud Shimazu warriors. By this point, the approaches to Kagoshima lay open, and Toyotomi troops were pouring into Satsuma. Yoshihisa was faced with two alternatives: a doomed last stand at Kagoshima or surrender. He wisely chose the latter. On 14 June 1587, he shaved his head and appeared in Hideyoshi's headquarters at Taiheiji in Satsuma. All things considered, Hideyoshi was lenient in his treatment of the humiliated Shimazu, allowing Yoshihisa to keep his head and his clan to keep Satsuma, Ôsumi, and southern Hyûga. Yoshihisa was naturally expected to retire (and indeed he had hastily taken up a monk's habit and the priestly name Ryuhaku), and he turned over leadership of the clan to his brother Yoshihiro. He lived in more-or-less quiet retirement until his death in 1611, having seen his clan defeated once again, this time in the fighting at Sekigahara in 1600. Like his father a leader of great energy, Yoshihisa was probably the greatest general Kyushu produced in the 16th Century, though his victories owed much to the skill of his brothers and the pure fighting qualities of the Satsuma warriors.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
1536 - 1598

The Legend
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
One of the most remarkable men in Japanese history, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was born a peasant and yet rose to finally end the Sengoku Period. In fact, little is known for certain about Hideyoshi's career prior to 1570, the year when he begins to appear in surviving documents and letters. The autobiography he commissioned begins with the year 1577 (the year he came into his own with an independent command to fight the Môri) and Hideyoshi himself was known to speak very little if at all about his past. According to tradition, Hideyoshi was born in a village called Nakamura in Owari province, the son of a foot-soldier/peasant known to us as Yaemon. Hideyoshi's childhood name is recorded as Hiyoshimaru, or 'bounty of the sun', quite possibly a later embellishment contrived to give substance to a claim of divine inspiration Hideyoshi made regarding his birth. The popular image of Hideyoshi's youth has him being shipped off to a temple, only to depart in search of adventure. He travels all the way to the lands of Imagawa Yoshimoto and serves there for a time, only to abscond with a sum of money entrusted into his care by Matsushita Yukitsuna. Hiyoshi (now known as Tokachiro) returns to Owari (around 1557) and finds service with the young Oda Nobunaga, whose attention he manages to secure. He somehow becomes involved with the rebuilding of Kiyosu Castle and acts as a foreman, all the while earning the enmity of the senior Oda retainers. Tokachiro is then given a position as one of Nobunaga's sandal-bearers and is present for the Battle of Okehazama in 1560; by 1564 he becomes known as Kinoshita Hideyoshi and manages to bribe a number of Mino warlords to desert the Saito. By now, Nobunaga has become impressed with Hideyoshi's natural talent, and it's thanks to Hideyoshi that Inabayama is taken with ease in 1567 (owing to Hideyoshi throwing up a fort at nearby Sunomata and discovering a secret route leading to the rear of Inabayama). Some time later, probably in 1573, Hideyoshi adopted the surname Hashiba, which he created by borrowing characters from two ranking Oda retainers, Niwa Nagahide and Shibata Katsuie. By this time he is married to a woman known as Nene (or O-ne); his mother had by now remarried, and through her marriage to a certain Chikuami produced Hidenaga, Hideyoshi's trusted half-brother.
Hideyoshi certainly cut an odd figure, especially as a general and later as a ruler. Short and thinly proportioned, Hideyoshi's sunken features were likened to that of a monkey, with the rarely tactful Nobunaga taking to calling him Saru (monkey) and the 'bald rat'. He was said to enjoy his drink and women more then most and as a younger man made friends easily. He had an innate sense for manipulation and reading other men, attributes that no doubt helped him in his rise through the Oda ranks.
Hashiba Hideyoshi
Hideyoshi commanded troops at the Battle of Anegawa in 1570 and was active in Nobunaga's campaigns against the Asai and Asakura; he finally and definitively emerges into the light of history in 1573. In that year Nobunaga destroyed the Asai clan of Omi and assigned Hideyoshi three districts in the northern part of that province. Initially based at Odani, the former Asai headquarters, Hideyoshi soon moved to Imahama, a port on Lake Biwa. Once there he set to work on domestic affairs, which included increasing the output at the local Kunimoto firearms factory (established some years previously by the Asai and Asakura). With Nobunaga engaged in almost constant warfare, Hideyoshi earned plenty of battlefield experience over the next few years, flying his 'golden gourd' standard at Nagashima (1573, 1574), Nagashino (1575), and Tedorigawa (1577).
Hideyoshi's stay in Omi would be relatively brief. By 1576 the Oda and Môri had gone to war and the following Nobunaga ordered Hideyoshi to co-command a campaign through the Chugoku with Akechi Mitushide. Mitsuhide would be responsible for subduing the 'Sanin' circuit (including Tamba, Tango, Tajima, and Inaba) while Hideyoshi advanced into the 'Sanyo' circuit (which consisted of those western provinces bordering the Inland Sea). In fact, both men would enjoy independence of command in their respective endeavors, an honor Nobunaga rarely conferred on his commanders (the notable exception being Shibata Katsuie, for some time involved in subduing Echizen and Kaga). Hideyoshi's first acquisitions were Himeji, Kozuki, and Sayo castles. Himeji was bought peacefully, with Kuroda Yoshitaka (Kanbei), soon to become a fast friend of Hideyoshi, convincing his father to surrender the strategically significant castle. Kozuki and Sayo had to be taken by force, with the former going to Amako Katsuhisa. Resistance to Hideyoshi's expedition stiffened quickly. Bessho (Betshusho) Nagaharu, originally in the Oda camp, defied Hideyoshi and shut himself up in Miki Castle. Hideyoshi reduced Miki's satellites (including Hataya and Ogo) and began a siege of the Bessho's stronghold; at the same time Ukita Naoie began attacking Oda holdings in the area, and Môri Terumoto sent a powerful army into Harima. The Môri force surrounded Kozuki, and when Hideyoshi marched to relieve the beleaguered fort, he was ordered to stand down by Nobunaga. Kozuki fell and Hideyoshi resumed the reduction of Miki, which proved a tough nut to crack. Miki was vital to the continued defense of the Ishiyama Honganji in Settsu and the Môri were therefore determined to see that it held. Supplies were shipped in and Bessho held out tenaciously, only surrendering in 1580. Needless to say, Hideyoshi's western advance was slow and tiring, although things began to look up with the defection Ukita Naoie from the Môri camp in 1580. This development essentially secured Harima and gave Hideyoshi a strong foothold in Bizen, an advantage he was quick to make use of. Later that year he dispatched a force to drive north into Inaba and surround Tottori, another significant Môri line of defense. The local lord, Yamana Toyokuni, quickly pledged his loyalty to the Oda, leaving Tottori, commanded by Kikkawa Tsuneie, isolated. Hideyoshi ordered that Tottori was to be starved out, regardless of the time required, and indeed, 200 days would be required for the defenders to give in.
In April 1582 Hideyoshi entered Bitchu province and besieged Takamatsu castle, a fortress the Môri considered absolutely imperative to the defense of their home provinces. If Takamatsu fell, Bitchu would be lost, leaving only Bingo province between the Oda and Aki, the Môri's ancestral home. At the same time, Môri Terumoto was a cautious leader and made no aggressive moves to counter Hideyoshi's advance. In fact, Hideyoshi had been heavily out-numbered, at least on paper, for much of his almost private war with the Môri. Occasionally, other commanders had been sent to assist Hideyoshi with important sieges (Oda Nobutada, the heir, had briefly been involved with the Seige of Miki, for instance) but for the most part, Hideyoshi and what averaged at around and at most 15,000 men had beaten back one of Japan's most powerful clans. Takamatsu was captained by Shimizu Muneharu, a resilient and dedicated warrior who ignored attempts at bribery and initial attempts to take his fortress by force. Concerned that the Môri would finally come against him in force, Hideyoshi decided to try an unconventional approach. Noting that Takamatsu sat on a flat plain just below sea level, Hideyoshi ordered that the waters of the nearby Ashimôrigawa be dammed up and diverted around the castle, creating a lake that left Shimizu and his garrison completely isolated. When Terumoto arrived with an army, he hesitated to make any move, electing instead to sit and wait for developments. For his part, Hideyoshi aggressively harassed the garrison, bombarding their island castle with constant rifle and (according to some sources) cannon fire. He was nonetheless concerned about the menacing Môri army and sent a request back to Nobunaga in the home provinces for reinforcements. Oda obliged and sent along a number of contingents, one of which, led by Akechi Mitushide, decided instead to fall on Nobunaga himself.
Yamazaki
On 20 June 1582 Nobunaga was killed by Akechi troops at the Honno Temple in Kyoto. The event carried with it great opportunities for Akechi, Hideyoshi, and the Môri, depending on just which of the last two learned of the news first. Naturally, Akechi wanted Terumoto appraised of the situation first and in a position to tie down Hideyoshi's army. It so happened that the messenger Mitsuhide dispatched west with news of the assassination was apprehended within 48 hours and his letter delivered into Hideyoshi's hands. Hideyoshi was now presented with a situation both rich in promise and complication. Of Nobunaga's chief retainers, only two were likely to have the initiative and strength to avenge Nobunaga-Shibata Katsuie and Hideyoshi himself. At the time, Katsuie was heavily involved with the Uesugi in Etchu province-it would take him some time to get extricated and in position to challenge Mitsuhide. Hideyoshi stood a much better chance of getting into the Kyoto area quickly, but had the Môri to contend with. He knew that Takamatsu was teetering on the brink of surrender, and he knew that unless it fell, the Môri would never negotiate. At the same time, Hideyoshi had the narrowest of windows in which to capitalize on the fact that unbeknownst to Akechi, he and not the Môri knew of the death of Nobunaga. He decided to force the issue by communicating directly with Shimizu in Takamatsu, promising him that if he surrendered, his men and family would be spared. Muneharu, aware that many of his men were becoming ill in the abominable conditions the flooding had created, agreed, and slit his belly ingrand style on a boat in full view of both armies. The fall of Takamatsu thus secured, Hideyoshi entered into hasty negotiations with the Môri, helped, no doubt, by friendships with both Kobayakawa Takakage and Ankokuji Ekei. Terumoto agreed to cede those provinces already in Oda hands (Hôki, Mimasaka, and Bitchû) and just days after learning of the Honnoji event, Hideyoshi made a show of entering Takamatsu. He then wasted no time in racing for the capital. With his army in tow, Hideyoshi force-marched into Settsu in about four days, completely catching Akechi off guard. Mitsuhide had done very poorly at collecting support for his cause, while men flocked to Hideyoshi, including Niwa Nagahide and Takayama Ukon, swelling the ranks of his army to 20,000. Mitsuhide, on the other hand, had only 10,000 men and these were engaged at Yamazaki on 2 July. Mitsuhide took up position just south of Shôryuji Castle, with his right flank secured by the Yodo River and his left flank at the foot of the 270-meter Tennôzan. Hideyoshi managed to score an immediate tactical advantage by securing Tennôzan's heights with troops under Kuroda Kanbei, Hidenaga, and Mikoda Masaharu. Hideyoshi's vanguard moved up to face Akechi's along the Enmyôji River. The battle began with an abortive effort by Akechi troops to dislodge Kuroda and his compatriots from the Tennozan. Eager to gain the initiative early, Hideyoshi dispatched Ikeda Nobuteru to add weight to the right flank of his army, which crossed the Enmyoji in the face of Tsuda Nobuharu and turned the Akechi flank. At the same time, the troops of Nakagawa Kiyohide and Takayama Ukon advanced against the Akechi front with élan; panic broke out in Akechi's ranks, and after just two hours Mitsuhide's army was routed. Mitsuhide himself made for Sakamoto, only to die en route. Hori Hidemasa brought down Sakamoto soon afterwards, and the Akechi coup was brought to an end. Hideyoshi was able to present Akechi's head before Nobunaga's grave and acted as the central figure at the funeral.
Shizugatake
Hideyoshi's remarkable response to the Honnôji assassination gave him a place of special importance in the following months. Much to the chagrin of Shibata Katsuie in particular, Hideyoshi now ranked as highly as any of Nobunaga's senior retainers. In fact, Hideyoshi had always been seen as an upstart, and even today his rapid rise through the Oda ranks is difficult to explain. Of course, Hideyoshi's rise is usually attributed to his many talents and determination. Just as significant, no doubt, is Nobunaga's own character. There seems little doubt that Oda distrusted many of his senior commanders, a condition that may be related to their association with the turbulent times in Owari before 1560. Akechi Mitushide had also been considered an upstart, coming as he did from an obscure Mino family that had joined Nobunaga sometime after 1565. Like Hideyoshi, he ascended into the Oda high command rapidly; in the same vein, the fall of Sakuma Nobumôri (one of Oda's oldest retainers) in 1580, gives some hint that Nobunaga was gradually distancing himself from the old guard. Of course, in the summer of 1582 all this was relatively moot, except that two camps formed around Hideyoshi and Shibata Katsuie. Ostensibly the divisive issue surrounded Nobunaga's successor. Hideyoshi favored Oda Samboshi (Hidenobu; 1582-1602), whose father, the original heir Nobutada, had been killed in Kyoto during the Honnoji Incident. Katsuie threw his support behind Oda Nobutaka, Nobunaga's third son and present at Yamazaki. Niwa Nagahide and Ikeda Nobuteru, who acted as co-governors of Kyoto along with Shibata and Hideyoshi, vacillated on the issue and in the end fell in with Hideyoshi. At the 'Kiyosu Conferences' that this issue was hotly debated, the Oda domain was divided up among the chief retainers; Hideyoshi received Yamashiro, Tamba, and Kwatchi, while Shibata retained Echizen as well as adding northern Omi to his fief. Takigawa Kazumasu, an opponent of Hideyoshi at Kiyosu, was confirmed in Ise, which he fortified in expectation of war. No real definitive resolution was reached regarding succession, much to Oda Nobutaka's dismay. For Hideyoshi, the whole business may well have been a simple formality, designed to establish his legitimacy as de facto ruler of the Oda lands and to force the issue with those who would oppose him. That possibility is given considerable substance in a letter he sent during this period to one of his young consorts (and likely intended for her father, Meada Toshiie) which read, 'When there is time I shall recover Osaka and station my men there. I shall order them to level the castles of the whole land and prevent further rebellions and to preserve the nation in peace for fifty years."1
Shibata Katsuie returned to Echizen and began to plan a strategy against Hideyoshi. He secured the promise of aid from Oda Nobutaka at Gifu (Mino) and Takigawa Kazumasu in Ise but failed to extract a promise of support from Tokugawa Ieyasu in Mikawa. In addition, both Meada Toshiie and KanaMôri Nagachika, whose support Shibata had hoped for, were lured into Hideyoshi's corner in the opening stages of the crisis. Finally, the Uesugi clan, still fairly strong if hardly what it had been under Kenshin, remained aloof; Shibata could hardly hope for the support of a family he had been warring with for well on six years. Nonetheless, Katsuie was in a solid enough position to defy Hideyoshi. He possessed an experienced army, and was personally at least comparable to Hideyoshi when it came to rallying and leading troops in battle. He also knew that if Hideyoshi were to be seen as losing the war, support for the upstart would likely vanish. Hideyoshi was hardly ignorant of the trouble brewing, especially with Nobutaka petulantly refusing to release the infant Samboshi from his custody. In the event, though, it would be Shibata who was in for a nasty surprise. In December Nobutaka, probably panicked by thinly concealed threats Hideyoshi sent to some of his retainers, openly defied Hideyoshi and rashly called his soldiers to arms, at a time when the passes down from Echizen were still choked with snow. With the game called, Takigawa had little choice but to rise up in support. Hideyoshi quickly surrounded Gifu and forced Nobutaka to surrender, costing Shibata; in one stroke Katsuie had lost an ally and any element of surprise. He hadn't lost the will to fight, though there was little he could presently do but gnash his teeth.
Hideyoshi next turned against Ise, marching into that province in March. At the same time Shibata ordered his adopted son Katsutoyo, who held Nagahama, to attack Hideyoshi's outposts in northern Omi. Hideyoshi nullified this threat by bribing key officers within the walls of Nagahama to surrender the fort. This allowed Hideyoshi to attack Kameyama in Ise and force Takigawa to surrender. By this point, however, the snows in Echizen had begun to thaw, and Shibata was able to put an army in the field. Nobutaka took the cue to once again unfurl his war banners, prompting Hideyoshi to march for Mino. Katsuie dispatched his top general, Sakuma Môrimasa, to reduce Hideyoshi's defensive line in Omi, an assignment he preformed a little too well. Iwasaki Castle was taken from Takayama Ukon, and Shizugatake was surrounded. The defending captain, Nakagawa Kiyohide, was killed but the garrison held on; Shibata sent messengers urging Sakuma to withdraw lest he become too heavily engaged. Sakuma effused to budge until Shizugatake could be captured, allowing Hideyoshi to perform another forced march north that surprised the Shibata army. In the one-sided Battle of Shizugatake, Sakuma Morimasa was defeated and his army routed. A number of warriors destined to become pillars of the future Toyotomi house made a name for themselves in this struggle, including Kato Kiyomasa and Fukushima Masamori. When Katsuie heard the news, he shut himself up within Kit-no-sho in Echizen and committed suicide as Hideyoshi's army spilled into the province. His wife, Nobunaga's sister, chose to die with him, but her daughters (through her late ex-husband Asai Nagamasa) were released to Hideyoshi. One of these would become his chief consort and the mother of his eventual heir, Hideyori. Komaki
Hideyoshi's victory over Shibata all but established him as the real successor to Nobunaga. Samboshi's inheritance was quickly forgotten and he was stuck in Gifu, vacated by the suicide of Nobutaka after the battle. In fact, there was one more claimant-Oda Nobuo, Nobunaga's 2nd son and the lord of Owari, presently courting the friendship of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Though Tokugawa had failed to make any moves during Hideyoshi's war with Shibata, he evidently saw some use to stepping up now. In the spring of 1584 Tokugawa and Nobuo allied and began issuing statements defaming Hideyoshi's suppuration of the Oda and calling on support from other clans. Chosokabe Motochika, recently the lord of Shikoku Island, Sasa Narimasa of Etchu, and the warrior-monks of Kii all sent promises of military aid, but this amounted to little in the event; a key local figure, Ikeda Nobuteru of Mino, wavered and finally came down on the side of Hideyoshi. Tokugawa took the initiative by marching into Owari and establishing his headquarters at Komaki, a hill about ten miles north of modern day Nagoya. Ikeda Nobuteru struck first blood by capturing Inuyama Castle from Nakagawa Kanemon, an ally of Nobuo murdered almost as soon as he declared his allegiance. Meanwhile, Hideyoshi was busy mustering troops for the campaign in Osaka and gave Ikeda permission to test the Tokugawa defenses. Mori Nagayoshi, Nobuteru's son-in-law, marched towards Komaki with 5,000 men, only to be met and defeated by a force of Tokugawa men headed by Sakai Tadatsugu.
On 7 May 1584 Hideyoshi led an army into Owari and after pausing at Inuyama marched south and took up position at Gakuden, establishing a defensive line some ways northeast of Komaki. The size of Hideyoshi's army is difficult to guess at, although commonly quoted figures of 80,000 to 100,000 are most likely exaggerations. Neither side made any immediate move, and their behavior is generally attributed to a fear of a Nagashino repeat. Given the room Hideyoshi had to maneuver and the predominance of firearms in his army, this fear likely extended only to Tokugawa. Hideyoshi was probably aware that Tokugawa stood to gain much more from any confrontation than he did; the best move Hideyoshi could make would be to wait him out. To an extent, this is just what happened, with one exception. In May Ikeda Nobuteru suggested that as most of Ieyasu's troops were presently committed on or around Komaki and at Kiyosu, the opportunity presented itself for a move into lightly defended Mikawa. Tokugawa would have little choice but to retreat and counter the threat, at which point Hideyoshi could move forward and apply enough pressure for a settlement. Hideyoshi gave his assent and dispatched Nobuteru (under the overall command of Hashiba Hidetsugu), who brought his two eldest sons and Nagayoshi, who was still smarting from his earlier defeat. Unfortunately for the Ikeda family, villagers tipped Ieyasu off to their movement, and he was able to arrange for a hot reception on the morning of 15 May near Nagakute. In the course of the fighting, Nobuteru, his son Yukisuke, and Nagayoshi were all killed and their army routed. Hideyoshi hastily marched out in the hopes of salvaging something of the embarrassment but finding that Tokugawa had gone back on the defensive as quickly as he had struck, went back to Gakuden.
The Bountiful Minister
Rather then focus on the formidable Ieyasu, Hideyoshi began to undermine Nobuo, the weaker of the two. In fairness to Nobuo, he was much more vulnerable to Hideyoshi's military might. A number of his strongholds in Ise had been reduced by Gamo Ujisato and Tsutsui Junkei in the opening days of the campaign; by December Nobuo was eager for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis, whilst he still had some lands left. Hideyoshi and Nobuo thus concluded a separate peace, which left Tokugawa with little choice but to follow suit in January. Hideyoshi returned to Kyoto to receive the courtly rank of gondainagon, the first in a remarkable series of promotions that Hideyoshi seized upon to in order to provide what one might loosely describe as a legal grounding for his rule.
Following the end of hostilities with Tokugawa, Hideyoshi moved to consolidate the core Oda domain. As his personal lands he took the 'Home Provinces' (Yamashiro, Kwatchi, Yamato, ect…) while establishing both old Oda retainers (such as Niwa, KanaMôri, Ikeda, Maeda) and his personal followers (including Ishida Mitsunari, Kuroda Kanbei, Hori Hidemasa, ect..) in the remaining territories. There was a decided method to most of his confirmations or rewards, all of which were designed to hold intact the young Hashiba domain. His wisdom in this regard is demonstrated by the fact that the lands within the 1584 borders of Hideyoshi's domain would be almost free from rebellion while he lived. Beyond this immediate sphere, relations were strengthened with the Môri and Uesugi, both families essentially becoming compliant vassals though they were treated in the manner of allies.
In recognition of his ascendancy, the court awarded him with the title of naidaijin in April, the same month he attacked the Negoroji and Saiga warrior-monks of the Kii area and forced their submission. The Negoroji was destroyed but the Saiga complex was spared once it turned over its weapons. Perhaps as a show of support for Buddhist institutions (provided they carry out their affairs unarmed) Hideyoshi gave permission for the Enryakuji (destroyed by Nobunaga) to be rebuilt on Mt. Hiei, and even allowed Kennyo Koju to begin work on a new Honganji temple (the Higashi-Honganji) to replace the one besieged and forced to submit to Oda Nobunaga.
Hideyoshi next turned towards Shikoku. Chosokabe Motochika, by now the master of that island, had in theory opposed Hideyoshi during the Komaki Campaign, though his only contribution was to defeat Sengoku Hidehisa, a Shikoku warrior allied with Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi could still find in this as a pretext, and demanded that the Chosokabe surrender Iyo and Awa. Motochika asked that only Awa be surrendered, an attempt at negotiation that prompted Hideyoshi to order an invasion. In the largest operation launched during the Sengoku Period to date, a total of 90,000 warriors landed on Shikoku in June. 60,000 came ashore on Awa, commanded by Hashiba Hidenaga and Hashiba Hidetsugu (Hideyoshi's nephew), while 30,000 Môri under Kobayakawa Takakage and Kikkawa Motoharu landed on Iyo. After a little over a month of desultory resistance, Motochika surrendered. In a marked departure from the policies of Oda Nobunaga, Hideyoshi showed the defeated Chosokabe lenience. Motochika was forced to give up Iyo, Awa, and Sanuki but was allowed to retain both his head and Tosa. The Chosokabe retainer band was also left intact, and Motochika himself was not expected to retire. This stood in sharp contrast to Nobunaga's treatment of the Asai, Asakura, and, especially, the Takeda-clans all but eradicated following their defeat. In fairness, however, Hideyoshi could afford to be generous with the Chosokabe (and later, with the Shimazu), families on the periphery of Japanese politics who stood to be useful (and grateful) allies. By way of comparison, Hideyoshi had obviously not intended to spare Shibata Katsuie, nor were his policies regarding resistance among the lesser classes much different from Nobunaga's. At any rate, Hideyoshi's conquest of Shikoku put out a strong message. Four provinces had fallen under his sway within a month and a half, with the Môri, one of Japan's most powerful families, acting as Hideyoshi's spearhead.
The next month, on 6 August, Hideyoshi was named Kampaku (or Imperial Regent) by the court; a remarkable step that must surely have raised eyebrows the length of the country. In point of fact, all previous regents had been of Fujiwara descent, a distinction peasant-born Hideyoshi could hardly claim. To add at least a token legitimacy to his new posting, Hideyoshi arranged to be adopted by Konoe Sakihisa, a court noble with the appropriate bloodlines. Hideyoshi attacked domestic issue with the same speed and in the same broad strokes with which he launched his wars; he established a team of five administrators (bugyô) to administer Kyoto (among whom was Ishida Mitsunari) and issued an edict outlawing merchant za (guilds). A series of all-encompassing land-surveys began almost immediately, and by 1597 would be carried out over the length of the country. Perhaps to place an exclamation point on the developments of the last year, on 29 September Hideyoshi adopted the surname 'Toyotomi', which consisted of characters that read 'bountiful minister'. Never one for excessive subtlety, Hideyoshi was now advertising his intention to rule Japan.
Two obstacles stood between Hideyoshi and his dreams. On Kyushu, the Shimazu family was invading Bungo, the last piece of the island not in their hands. To the east, the Hôjô ruled over the vast Kanto region and eyed the developments in Kyoto with suspicion, confident, perhaps, in the Hakone Mountains and the imposing walls of Odawara Castle to shield them from Hideyoshi's ambitions. Once affairs had been settled in Shikoku, Hideyoshi was in a position to concern himself with the Kyushu matter. On 12 November 1585, following a personal plea from Ôtomo Sôrin, he dispatched a message to Shimazu Yoshihisa demanding that he withdraw from Bungo and make peace with the Ôtomo, to which Shimazu replied with thinly veiled insults. As doubtlessly displeased as Hideyoshi may have been, it would be a little over a year before any Toyotomi troops could be put on the island. In December an advance force under Chosokabe Motochika and Sengoku Hidehisa arrived at the Ôtomo capital of Funai. Once there, Ôtomo Yoshimune and Sengoku decided to take an offensive approach and went out to relieve a fort besieged by the Shimazu, ignoring both orders by Hideyoshi to stand on the defensive and Motochika's objections. The result was the Battle of the Hetsugigawa and a defeat for the Ôtomo-Toyotomi forces. Motochika lost a favorite son in the battle and the reinforcements were forced to flee the area, allowing Shimazu to march into Funai in triumph. This moment would be Yoshihisa's final brush with glory. On 20 January Toyotomi Hidenaga landed on Kyushu with as many as 60,000 men, followed by Kobayakawa Takakage and the Môri, who had with them a further 90,000. Faced with this mighty host, the Shimazu withdrew south rapidly, allowing Hidenaga to proceed with an advance along the eastern coast of the island. Hideyoshi himself arrived with yet another 30,000 in February and secured the submission of most of the warlords of the provinces conquered by the Shimazu in the past decade, including the Akizuki, Arima, Goto, Nabeshima, Ômura, and Ryuzoji. The Toyotomi progress was almost leisurely, especially since the only real Shimazu resistance would come at the Sendai River on 6 June, and this was in essence a show of simple defiance by the proud Shimazu warriors. Within days of this battle, Shimazu Yoshihisa arrived in Hideyoshi's presence with a shaved head and surrendered. Hideyoshi accepted the Shimazu submission and announced that they would be allowed to retain Satsuma, Ôsumi, and southern Hyûga. Yoshihisa was ordered to retire and was replaced by his younger brother Yoshihiro.
Hideyoshi dallied in Kyushu for a time, making land grants to his loyal generals, with the largest tracts going to Konishi Yukinaga (Higo), Kato Kiyomasa (Higo), Kuroda Kanbei (Buzen), and Kobayakawa Takakage (Chikuzen). These men and the native Kyushu warriors would provide the vanguard for Hideyoshi's greatest endeavor-the Invasion of Korea in the 1590's. While in Kyushu Hideyoshi also acquainted himself with the powerful Christian presence on the island and made the first step in quelling what he saw as a dangerous destabilizing influence. On 24 July he issued the first Christian Expulsion Edict, declaring that all Christian missionaries were to depart Japan within 20 days. At the same time, this edict and a Limitation on the Propagation of Christianity (issued the day before) were worded somewhat ambiguously. The Limitation order actually allowed landholders to become Christian, but with certain stipulations and only with permission, although forced conversion was outlawed. There seemed to be some room for maneuver here (from the Christian stand-point) and Hideyoshi was clearly not prepared or interested at the moment in pressing the matter any further.
Hideyoshi now controlled a vast domain that stretched from Kagoshima Bay in Satsuma to the Hakone Mountains and eastern borders of Echigo. The Hôjô and a myriad number of northern warlords (most notable among them being Date Masamune, Mogami Yoshiakira, and Nambu Nobunao) remained outside Hideyoshi's influence but of these, only the Hôjô constituted a real threat - in the sense that if he failed to take Odawara, the political ramifications could be damaging. He was in no hurry, and for the time being contented himself with summoning the Hôjô to Kyoto, a request, unsurprisingly, Hôjô Ujimasa ignored. While preparing for the final act of in the unification of Japan, Hideyoshi spent much of his time in Kyoto, throwing himself into the role of 'Bountiful Minister' and further obscuring his humble roots with a study of the tea ceremony and poetry. During the 1590's, he would even delve into no, going so far as to have a number of plays written about his own life in 1594, which he then starred in for a select audience of nobles and daimyo in Osaka. He regularly preformed at his Nagoya headquarters during the Korean Invasion of 1592-93 and prompted his men to join in, including Tokugawa Ieyasu. As for how well Hideyoshi mastered his new hobby, we have only the somewhat laconic and amusing remark by Konoe Sakihisa, writing after a performance in Kyoto before the Emperor: "The Taikô's performance conveys the impression of enormous development."2
In November 1585 Hideyoshi showcased his newfound cultural acuity with the Grand Kitano Tea Ceremony, an extravagant event that saw the finest tea items displayed and provided a lucky few with an opportunity to let the Kampaku personally prepare them tea (in fact, he served 803 individuals in one day). Nothing of the sort had been seen in well over a hundred years, and while Hideyoshi cancelled the event after just one day he had provided the highpoint of a time of spectacles that would later be called the Momoyama Period. Surpassing even Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in sheer extravagance, Hideyoshi sought to over-awe his subjects and, probably, endear his name to posterity. On 9 May 1588 Hideyoshi hosted an Imperial Visit by Emperor Go-Yozei at the Juraku Palace, an elaborate event that truly marked the pinnacle of his career. The son of a farmer/foot soldier, Hideyoshi, the one-time sandal-bearer, read waka to the Emperor and treated him to a series of lavish feasts over the five-day visit. In addition, he made generous grants to the Imperial treasury and rebuilt Imperial properties. Yet, in fact, Hideyoshi and the court shared a symbiotic relationship: Hideyoshi reinvested the court with luxury and pomp while the court provided Hideyoshi with legitimacy. Hideyoshi's peasant background (his aspirations towards Fujiwara descent aside) doubtlessly irked some and was probably very much in people's minds as Hideyoshi visited with the Emperor.
That same year (1585), Hideyoshi made the most controversial and far-reaching domestic move of his career. In August he ordered what has become known as the Great Sword Hunt, beginning with the words, "The farmers of all provinces are strictly forbidden to have in their possession any swords, short swords, bows, spears, firearms or other types of weapons. If unnecessary implements of war are kept, the collection of annual rent (nengu) will be more difficult, and without provocation uprisings can be fomented."3 Hideyoshi went on to promise that the many thousands of weapons thus collected would be melted down for use in the building of a Great Buddha statue. Designed to reduce the danger of ikki uprisings, the order also cut into the potential manpower pool any given daimyo had at his disposal, thus reducing the risk of insurrection.
In 1591 Hideyoshi would follow up the Sword Hunt with his Edict on Changing Status. This extremely important document was divided into three articles, with the first demanding that any warriors who had recently returned to village life be expelled. The second article forbad villagers from becoming townspeople or engaging in trade, and third article essentially prohibited the hire of warriors who had deserted their previous lords. In no uncertain terms and without precedent, Hideyoshi drew a wide line between villager and warrior status, one that was absolutely not to be crossed. In one stroke, Hideyoshi slammed the door shut on social mobility, abolishing the concept of the ji-zamurai, or 'samurai of the land' who tilled the soil when not at war. Even lowly ashigaru were made samurai, albeit low-ranking ones, and were forbidden to do village work and were eventually ordered to live in the castle town of their lords. Almost as unpopular as the land surveys Hideyoshi ordered, the Sword Hunt and the Status edict guaranteed that there would not be another Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
In 1590, Hideyoshi moved to bring the last of the Japanese provinces under his sway. Hôjô Ujimasa and Ujinao had refused to bow to Hideyoshi, even though the latter had hinted that by doing so they would retain most of their lands in the Kanto. Perhaps emboldened by their ties to the neighboring Tokugawa, the Hôjô dug in. In the event, Tokugawa Ieyasu cut his ties to Odawara and formed the vanguard of the enormous host that descended on the Kanto in May. Toyotomi forces assaulted the Hôjô from three sides, with Tokugawa marching along the Tokaido coast, Sanada and Uesugi advancing into Kozuke, and Chosokabe and others landing on Izu. The Hôjô opted for a strategy that had in the past proved successful against invaders, withdrawing within the ample defenses of Odawara. The Hôjô counted on the sheer size of Hideyoshi's invasion force saving the day-such a host would require an enormous logistical commitment that could easily go disastrously awry. Unfortunately for Ujimasa, Hideyoshi had assigned logistical experts to handle that side of things, and soon the 'Siege' of Odawara developed into an almost festive event for the Toyotomi troops. To keep morale up, Hideyoshi brought in performers, allowed for markets to be established to cater to the men, and even allowed his generals to send for their wives. A few sharp actions did take place in the course of the three-month siege, although these had little effect other then to break up the monotony for both sides. Finally, with no end in sight and supplies running low, the Hôjô decided to surrender. On 12 August the gates of Odawara were opened and Ujimasa committed suicide. Perhaps through the intercession of Tokugawa the daimyo Ujinao was spared, but his clan was finished as a political force. The event allowed for a certain irony: the Hôjô, the clan many consider the first true 'sengoku daimyo', were the last of the great families to lose their independence. Date Masamune had already appeared in Hideyoshi's camp to show his fealty, and a brief campaign was required to see the far north subdued. Japan in its entirety was Hideyoshi's by January 1591.
Now in a position of national hegemony, Hideyoshi began to work towards the stability of the new Toyotomi dynasty. Concerned about the power of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Hideyoshi transferred him to the now vacant Kanto region, a move that on paper increased Ieyasu's holdings considerably while moving him further from Kyoto. Ieyasu dutifully left his ancestral homeland of Mikawa and set up his new headquarters at Edo in Musashi while Hideyoshi filled the holes the move created with men particularly loyal to himself, such as Asano Nagamasa (Kai), Kyôgoku Takamoto (Shinano), Ikeda Terumasa (Mikawa), and Yamaouchi Kazutoyo (Tôtômi). Much like Nobunaga, Hideyoshi saw impressive structures as useful symbols of power, and so continued on a building program that by his death would produce Osaka and Fushimi (or Momoyama), the last becoming synonymous with his reign while the first was the greatest castle ever built in Japan.
The Twilight
Hideyoshi's hopes for a stable realm after his death were dealt a blow with the death of his infant son Tsurumatsu in September 1591. The three year old (whose mother, the so-called Lady Yodo or Yodo-gimi, was one of the daughters of Asai Nagamasa acquired from Shibata in 1583), had been Hideyoshi's only child. This left Hideyoshi with two back-up heirs-his half-brother Hidenaga and his nephew Hidetsugu. Unfortunately, Hidenaga died not long after Tsurumatsu, a loss Hideyoshi was said to have felt keenly. His passing left Hidetsugu, whom Hideyoshi adopted in January 1592. On 11 February Hideyoshi retired as Kampaku and passed that rank on to Hidetsugu, while assuming the title that he would become most famous for: Taikô (Retired Regent).
Even as clouds formed around the issue of succession, Hideyoshi was looking for more worlds to conquer. As early as 1586 he had told Môri Terumoto that he intended to invade China, and some have asserted that he even uttered comparable statements while still an Oda general. While that last part is a bit hard to prove, there can be no doubt that even before the Shimazu were defeated Hideyoshi planned on some sort of over-seas adventure. It is even tempting to see such an endeavor as one of his reasons for the invasion of Kyushu. In 1587 Hideyoshi began communicating with the Koreans in this vein, essentially requesting unmolested passage into China. The Koreans made no reply at that time, and in 1591 twice flatly refused demands that Japanese troops be allowed to march through Korea (April, July). In August, Hideyoshi ordered for preparations to commence for an invasion of Korea.
On 13 April 1592 the first Japanese troops landed on Korean soil, marking the opening phases of what Hideyoshi hoped would be a conquest of Asia. To this end he had gathered a massive host, composed largely of western daimyo families, notably the Môri, Chosokabe, Shimazu, Nabeshima, Kato, and Konishi. As many as 200,000 men, spearheaded by two main assault forces under Konishi Yukinaga and Kato Kiyomasa were embarked from Kyushu and made a rapid advance up the Korean peninsula. Hideyoshi himself opted not to go, instead staying on Kyushu at Nagoya (present-day Karatsu).
Many attempts have been made to explain the reasoning behind Hideyoshi's efforts to conquer Korea. Some have suggested that he was intentionally bleeding away the power of the daimyo, so as to strengthen the security of the Toyotomi. This theory has always been rather popular but overlooks the fact that the majority of daimyo who would fight in Korea were staunch supporters of Hideyoshi, including Kato, Konishi, Môri, and Chosokabe. By way of comparison, some less trustworthy elements never set foot in Korea, including Tokugawa Ieyasu and Date Masamune. Another slightly different but comparably popular suggestion has Hideyoshi invading Korea to provide an outlet for his daimyo, lest they have the time to begin plotting against their new overlord. Both arguments are essentially sides of the same coin, and are both weakened by the fact that most of the daimyo east of Kyoto never saw a day of service on the Korean mainland. The most likely explanation for Hideyoshi's campaign on the Asian mainland, then, was the same driving force that had seen him to rise to become Kampaku and had intoxicated so many other would-be conquerors: ambition.
Unfortunately for Hideyoshi's dreams of true ascendancy, the Korean expedition bogged down after initially impressive gains. In May Seoul had been occupied, and on 16 June Konishi Yukinaga marched into Pyongyang. At the same time, Kato Kiyomasa was driving hard up the eastern half of the peninsula and would even cross briefly into Manchuria. Within four months, then, Japanese forces had cleared a road into China. Three factors would combine to slam that door shut: Koran guerillas, the arrival of large numbers of Chinese troops around Pyongyang, and the Korean Navy, which under Admiral Yi Sun Shin proved almost invincible. Admiral Yi inflicted a series of naval defeats on the Japanese that cut deeply into Hideyoshi's logistical organization. Korean guerillas further harassed supply lines while tying down significant numbers of Japanese warriors behind the lines attempting to ferret them out. The Chinese, while not militarily the equal of the Japanese, outnumbered Konishi's command and forced him to retreat from Pyongyang in February to avoid being isolated. Kato had no choice but to retreat as well, and by July the operation was clearly stalemated and in danger of ultimately developing into a complete disaster. Hideyoshi found it wise to negotiate, and stated that he would agree to a peace if, among other things, a daughter of the Ming Emperor was given to the Emperor of Japan. The Chinese, while probably amazed at the audacity of that demand (which, needless to say, was never fulfilled), agreed to a ceasefire. Hideyoshi, whose forces still controlled some territory in Korea's southern-most province (Kyongsang), could boast to Luis Frois later that year that "he had already conquered the kingdom of Korea." and that the Chinese "had sent him their submission".4 He further demanded that Luzon show him obedience, threatening to invade if this was not done.
The birth of Hideyoshi's second son, Hideyori, in 1593 both distracted the Taikô from the depressing results of his Korean misadventure and created another problem. The threatening clouds of a potential succession struggle must have haunted Hideyoshi, who had already named Hidetsugu heir and yet devoted himself to Hideyori. The matter was brutally decided in 1595, when in August Hidetsugu was exiled to Mount Koya and then ordered to commit suicide. Those of his family who did not follow suit were murdered en mass in Kyoto, including 31 women and a number of infant sons and daughters. The specific reasons behind Hidetsugu's fall are entirely unclear, so much more the reasons for the excessive brutality with which Hideyoshi treated the family. Scholars continue to make assertions regarding this event; in truth, the specifics will never be more then a matter of speculation, except that a possible succession dispute had been dealt with.
On 19 March 1597 Hideyoshi ordered a resumption of the war in Korea after the Chinese had disregarded Hideyoshi's demands for a princess and actually acknowledged him as the 'King of Japan', a humiliating incident for Hideyoshi. While a man known for his skill at negotiating, nothing in Hideyoshi's record leads one to believe that he ever entered a negotiation without intending to get everything he wanted.
This 2nd Korean Invasion was almost perfunctory, and the Japanese bogged down without having seen any significant gains beyond the capture of Namwon in August. At this same time, Hideyoshi and Hideyori were amusing themselves at Osaka with the spectacle of an elephant provided by the Spanish (perhaps to smooth over relations). The 'Miracle of Myongyang' on 19 September, in which 16 ships under Yi Sun Shin defeated a Japanese fleet of 133 vessels, probably sealed the fortunes of the invasion. Kato Kiyomasa and Asano Yukinaga were actually isolated in the fortress of Ulsan and underwent a long and brutal siege that lasted into 1598.
In the summer of 1598, Hideyoshi fell ill and summoned his most important vassals to his bedside. During August he established a council of regents (Tokugawa Ieyasu, Meada Toshiie, Môri Terumoto, Ukita Hideie, and Uesugi Kagekatsu) to rule while Hideyori came of age as well as a team of five administrators (bugyo) to handle domestic matters. These bugyô included Ishida Mitsunari, Natsuka Masaie, Maeda Gen-I, Mashita NagaMôri, and Asano Nagamasa. Each man was made to sign a pledge of loyalty to the five-year old Hideyori, providing the scene with an element of pathos. Hideyoshi insisted again and again that the five men he had chosen as regents (whom he hoped would keep one another in check) be loyal to Hideyori, and no doubt counted on Maeda Toshiie, the powerful lord of Kaga who was close to Hideyoshi and shared rural Owari roots. Finally, he succumbed to his illness and finally died on 18 September 1598. The war in Korea was called off and the peninsula abandoned; Maeda Toshiie died in 1599 and within two years of Hideyoshi's death the council of regents would be broken and Tokugawa Ieyasu would rise supreme, assuming the title of shôgun in 1603. Hideyori resided in Osaka Castle until 1615. After two sieges (Winter and Summer, 1614 and 1615) by Tokugawa forces, he committed suicide, along with the Lady Yodo. The Toyotomi name was eliminated.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was truly a remarkable figure, an anomalous character in the pageant of Japanese history that continues to provoke debate and study. Few Japanese leaders have attracted as much adulation and hero-worship from both scholars and the general public, to the extent that Hideyoshi is recreated, it seems, every twenty years in a new, ever-more relevant image. Eiji Yoshikawa, in his famous book Taikô (also published much more recently in America), presents Hideyoshi in the role of an infallible, spunky metaphor for the author's idealized version of Japan itself. Mary Berry's 1982 biography sifts through Hideyoshi's career, attempting to place his decisions and activities in a manner compatible with modern assumptions regarding developments in Japanese history. Modern Japanese television dramas and novels continue to popularize Hideyoshi's life (updated, of course, to account for more modern social standards), essentially regurgitating events portrayed in the Taikô sujoki and Taikô-ki, some of which are historically shaky, to say the least.
All of these tend to distract us from a clear and well-rounded picture of Toyotomi Hideyoshi the man. Hideyoshi is often portrayed as a hero, a shining figure and the progenitor of a golden age. The inconsistency his later actions create is often simply ignored. Yoshikawa, for instance, even in the original (unabridged) Taikô, elects to end the story prior to 1590, conveniently avoiding the less-than flattering events that follow. Furthermore, few works on Hideyoshi care to mention the almost unbelievable suffering his ill-advised invasions of Korea caused the Korean people. Few structures dated prior to 1592 can today be found anywhere in the country south of Pyongyang, a mute testimonial to the savagery of the war. One damaging result of Hideyoshi's Korean endeavors to the Toyotomi house may have been that it denied him the sort of peace in which to cement his control over the country that Ieyasu would enjoy between 1600 and 1603. One of the subtle consequences of the Korean war was that it sapped the strength of those families who might be counted on to support the Toyotomi cause in the future while sparing the potential usurpers - namely, Tokugawa Ieyasu.
The Korean Invasions aside, Hideyoshi deserves much of his acclaim. More then Hôjô Soun, Saitô Dosan, or Takeda Shingen, Hideyoshi embodied the spirit of his age, and as fate would have it, was the one to bring it to a close. His policies and initiatives made the Tokugawa shogunate possible, shaping and changing Japanese history in ways still discernable today. For good or bad, Toyotomi Hideyoshi looms large in Japanese history, larger, perhaps, than any man before or since.
Tokugawa Ieyasu
1543 - 1616

The Matsudaira
Tokugawa Ieyasu was born Matsudaira Takechiyo, the son of Matsudaira Hirotada (1526-1549), a relatively minor Mikawa lord who had spent much of his young life fending off the military advances of the Oda and the political ploys of the Imagawa. The question of accepting Imagawa rule had been a source of controversy within the Matsudaira for many years, and had in fact contributed to the murder of Hirotada's father (Kiyoyasu) in 1536. Hirotada's own leanings towards the Imagawa, whom he saw as the lesser of two evils, had driven a number of family members into the arms of the Oda. To a great extent, Oda Nobuhide made his decision for him. In 1548 the Oda attacked Mikawa, and Hirotada turned to Imagawa Yoshimoto for assistance. Yoshimoto was only too willing to throw the considerable weight of the Imagawa in with Hirotada but on the condition that Hirotada's young son be sent to Sumpu as a hostage. The decision was not an easy one, and prompted a storm of protest within the Matsudaira, but in the end Hirotada agreed. Takechiyo was duly prepared and sent off on the road east with a group of other young men (also hostages but primarily present to serve Takechiyo). Unfortunately, the wily Oda Nobuhide caught wind of the deal, and saw to it that Takechiyo's entourage was intercepted on the road to Suruga. Takechiyo was wisked away to Owari and confined to Kowatari Castle. While he was not badly treated, Nobuhide threatened to put him to death unless Hirotada renounce his ties with the Imagawa and ally with the Oda. Hirotada wisely elected to call his Owari rival's bluff and made no response except to say that the sacrifice of his own son could only impress upon the Imagawa his dedication to their pact. Nobuhide was no doubt disappointed his scheme had not borne fruit, but did young Takechiyo no harm. The following year, 1549, both Hirotada and Nobuhide passed away, leaving the Matsudaira leaderless and the already splintered Oda weakened. Imagawa wasted no time in capitalizing on this turn of events, and dispatched his uncle, Sessai, with an army to attack the Oda's border castles. The primary objective was Anjo, a former Matsudaira fort which presently housed Oda Nobuhiro, Nobuhide's eldest son and successor. Sessai, a reknowned warrior, surrounded Anjo, and the fall of that place looked to be inevitable. Yet rather then press home the assault, Sessai struck a bargain with Oda Nobunaga, Nobuhide's 2nd son. Anjo - and Nobuhiro - would be spared in return for the release of Takechiyo. Nobunaga had little choice but to agree, and Sessai returned to Suruga with Takechiyo, who finally arrived in Sumpu after a year's delay.
Takechiyo's life in the capital of the Imagawa would not be uncomfortable, but for those Matsudaira kinsmen and retainers back in Mikawa, the following years would be long and depressing. Happy to take advantage of the clan's sad state, Yoshimoto saw to it that Imagawa men received important posts and forts within Mikawa.
Independance
Takechiyo came of age 1556, and received the name Matsudaira Motoyasu, the MOTO coming from Yoshimoto himself. He was allowed to return to Mikawa that same year, and was tasked with fighting a series of battles against the Oda on the Imagawa's behalf. For all the damage the years of Imagawa interference and in-fighting had wrought, the famed fighting spirit of the Mikawa samurai was hardly tarnished. Motoyasu scored a notable local victory at Terabe and made a name for himself (at Nobunaga's expense) with the provisioning of Odaka. In that instance, Motoyasu had brought in much-needed supplies to a beleaguered fort by tricking the bulk of the attackers into marching away to face a non-existent enemy army. With these victories, the Mikawa men began to grumble that it was time for the Matsudaira to be allowed to set their own course. Yoshimoto, however, was much too busy with planning his most ambitious military endeavor to be bothered with such trivialities. In 1560, he assembled an army of as many as 20,000 men and prepared to march on Kyoto. No other daimyo had attempted such a move since Oûchi Yoshioki had restored Ashikaga Yoshitane in 1508 and was possible only after a decade of political dealing with the Takeda and Hôjô clans. To this end, the Matsudaira would be in the vanguard of the army, though when the campaign began in June, Motoyasu was dispatched from the main army to bring down Marune. After a bit of tough fighting, the fort was brought down and the Mikawa men allowed to lager there for a time resting. For this reason Motoyasu and his clan were able to avoid the Battle of Okehazama, which occurred some miles away and cost the life of Yoshimoto himself. Motoyasu readily retreated back across the border into Mikawa, and afterwards worked to free himself of Imagawa influence. Pragmatic despite his youth, Motoyasu proceeded to strike up an alliance with Nobunaga, though initially in secret - a number of his close family (including his infant son) were still held hostage in Sumpu by Yoshimoto's successor, Ujizane. In 1561 Motoyasu ordered the capture of Kaminojo, an endeavor that served a number purposes. Firstly, it sent a clear message to Nobunaga that the Matsudaira had really and truly cut their ties to the Imagawa. Secondly, Motoyasu got his hands on two sons of the slain castle commander, Udono Nagamochi, which he used as barter with Ujizane. Perhaps due to the fact that the Udono were a important Imagawa retainer clan, Ujizane unwisely agreed to release Motoyasu's family members in return for the Udono children. As soon as he was reunited with his wife and son, Motoyasu was free to make any moves we wished without hindrance. The next few years were spent rebuilding a Matsudaira clan badly fragmented by years of strife and a province weakened by war. To this end he carefully nurtured and strengthened his retainer band by giving them lands and positions within the administration of Mikawa. Chief among his followers at this time were Ishikawa Kazumasa, Sakai Tadatsugu, Sakikabara Yasumasa, Koriki Kiyonaga, and Honda Tadakatsu. Luckily, there were castles to be had within Mikawa's borders, manned by Imagwa men, and these would be taken and redistributed by 1566.
He defeated the militant Mikawa monto in March 1564 in a sharp encounter that saw him actually struck by a bullet that failed to penetrate his armor. Soon afterwards he began testing the Imagawa defenses in Tôtômi. Having thus begun to make a name for himself, in 1566 he petitioned the court to allow him to change his name to Tokugawa, a request that was granted and so from this point he became known as Tokugawa Ieyasu. He liked to claim that his blood was Minamoto, and cited descent from the Nitta clan to this end. In fact, little at all is known of the Matsudaira/Tokugawa prior to the 15th Century, and Ieyasu's claims seem a tad unsupportable. Some indication of the genealogical spin-doctoring Ieyasu freely engaged in can be gleaned from the fact that he also had an alternate family tree drawn up that claimed descent from the noble Fujiwara.
Though the Tokugawa could claim some modicum of freedom, they were very much subject to the requests of Oda Nobunaga. When Oda marched on Kyoto in 1568, Tokugawa troops were present, the first of many joint Oda-Tokugawa ventures. At the same time, Ieyasu was eager to expand eastward. He entered into a brief pact with Takeda Shingen of Kai and Shinano aimed at absorbing the remaining Imagawa territory and by 1570 Ieyasu had added Tôtômi to his domain. The Takeda occupied Suruga and it may be that Ieyasu regretted his dealings with Shingen, for even before Shingen had taken Sumpu, Ieyasu was sheltering Ujizane and promising to restore his lands to him.1 Needless to say, Takeda-Tokugawa relations began to sink, made all the worse by an attempt on Ieyasu's part to secure an alliance with Shingen's great enemy Uesugi Kenshin. As to inflame the situation, Ieyasu then moved his headquarters to Hamamatsu in Tôtômi (closer to Shingen), an action even Nobunaga called needless provacative. Soon the Takeda and Tokugawa would be at war. In June of 1570, Ieyasu led 5,000 men to help Nobunaga win the Battle of Anegawa against the Asai and Asakura, a victory owed largely to the efforts of the Tokugawa men. This would be the last opportunity Ieyasu would have to send troops west for two years, as the Tokugawa were increasingly pressured by the advances of the Takeda. In 1572 Ieyasu lost Futamata Castle, then suffered a defeat at the Battle of Mikatagahara, where he was enticed to march out of Hamamatsu and face Shingen in open battle - and barely escaped with his life. Luckily for the Tokugawa, Takeda Shingen died later in the Spring of 1573, although his heir, Katsuyori, managed to capture the important Tokugawa fort of Taketenjin in 1574. In 1575 Katsuyori surrounded Nagashino Castle in Mikawa, and when word reached Ieyasu, he called on Nobunaga for help. When the latter dragged his feet on the matter, Ieyasu went as far as to threaten to JOIN the Takeda and spearhead an attack on Owari and Mino. This was the sort of talk that Nobunaga respected, and he immediately led an army into Mikawa. The combined Oda-Tokugawa force of some 38,000 crushed the Takeda army on 28 June but did not vanquish it. Katsuyori continued to bother the Tokugawa afterwards, and the Takeda and Tokugawa raided one another's lands frequently.
In 1579 Ieyasu's eldest son, Hideyasu, and his wife were accused of conspiring with Takeda Katsuyori. Due in part to pressure from Nobunaga, Ieyasu ordered his son to commit suicide and had his wife executed. Like his late rival, Takeda Shingen, Tokugawa was known to run hot and cold, and could be utterly merciless when the overall fortunes of his clan were at stake. He would in time name his 3rd son, Hidetada, as heir, since his second was to be adopted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
in Spring 1582 the Tokugawa joined Nobunaga in finally invading and destroying the Takeda and for his efforts Ieyasu received Suruga province, an acquisition which must have brought him no small private satisfaction. He now bordered the Hôjô, and cautiously sounded them out, his efforts helped in part by a personal friendship from his hostage days in Sumpu, Hôjô Ujinori, bother of the daimyo, Ujimasa.
Ieyasu was staying in Sakai (Settsu province) when Nobunaga was killed by Akechi Mitushide in June 1582 and narrowly escaped with his own life back to Mikawa. The Tokugawa were not in a position to challenge Mitsuhide, but did take advantage of the uncertainty following the Battle of Yamazaki to take Kai and Shinano, a move that prompted the Hôjô to send troops into Kai; no real fighting occurred, and the Tokugawa and Hôjô made peace. Ieyasu gave some of his lands in Kai and Shinano to the Hôjô, though found himself embarrassed in this respect by Sanada Masayuki the following year. In the meantime, Ieyasu readily availed himself of the example of government left behind by Takeda Shingen and was quick to employ surviving Takeda men within his own retainer band. He avoided becoming involved in the conflict between Shibata Katsuie and Toyotomi Hideyoshi that culminated in the Battle of Shizugatake (1583), but became aware that sooner or later Hideyoshi would come to test his own resolve.
Rise to power

In 1584, Ieyasu chose to take up the cause of Oda Nobukatsu, one of the late Nobunaga's sons and a claimant to succeed him. This appears to have been a calculated move intended to draw Hideyoshi into the field. Certainly, no better time for a showdown was likely to present itself, and Ieyasu made the most of the opportunity. To this end he led an army into Owari and took up a position at Komaki. Hideyoshi responded to the Tokugawa insolence by leading an army into Owari and starting what would come to be known as the Komaki Campaign. Ieyasu won the single notable battle of this campaign, at Nagakute, and by the end of the year a truce was in effect. In fact, Oda Nobukatsu himself had undermined Tokugawa's stance by making a separate peace with Hideyoshi. Now quite without a cause for further fighting, Ieyasu went to Osaka the following spring and gave a promise of good will towards Hideyoshi. Nonetheless, the Komaki Campaign had made Hideyoshi wary of Ieyasu, and with the exception of the Odawara Campaign (1590), the Tokugawa were exempted from participating in any of Hideyoshi's further campaigns. In an interesting postscript, long time Tokugawa retainer Ishikawa Kazumasa abandoned Ieyasu for Hideyoshi in 1585. As Ishikawa had been privvy to all of the Tokugawa military secrets and organization, Ieyasu was compelled to completly over-haul the Tokugawa military structure, and is believed to have done so following a system devised by Takeda Shingen.
While the Tokugawa were allowed to sit out Hideyoshi's invasions of Shikoku and Kyushu, their position on the Tokai Coast did place them in a central role when tensions between Hideyoshi and the Hôjô spiked in the late 1580's. To a greater or lesser extent, Ieyasu did what he could politically for Ujimasa, but in the end was unable to overcome that daimyo's own stubbornness. In 1589 Hideyoshi ordered preparations for an invasion of the Kanto, and the Tokugawa were to act as a vanguard.
Ieyasu led some 30,000 men into the Hôjô's lands as part of Hideyoshi's massive 1590 effort to force the capitulation of Odawara. During the siege of Odawara, Hideyoshi offered him the provinces of the Kanto, which he felt compelled to accept (and legend has it they peed together to seal the agreement). On paper, the deal was an exceedingly good one: Ieyasu would trade the five provinces he presently held for the eight that constituted the Kanto. In truth, the trade would be about even in that three of these provinces were already occupied (Satomi in Awa, Satake in Hitachi, and Utsunomiya in Shimotsuke) although the remaining provinces were still very rich. When the Hôjô surrendered in August 1590, Ieyasu began a rapid move from his provinces of Mikawa, Tôtômi, Suruga, Shinano, and Kai into the Kanto region, establishing his headquarters at Edo. He was now a great lord with an income of as much as 1,000,000 koku, though one who now had quite a bit of reorganizing to do. This may well have been what Hideyoshi had had in mind when he offered the Kanto. Ieyasu was richer now, but further from the center of Japanese politics and easily containable beyond the Hakone Mountains should he betray their alliance.
Ieyasu served in Hideyoshi's Kyushu headquarters during the Korean Expeditions (1592-93, 1597-98) but was not required to provide any troops for the actual campaign and was most likely present so that Hideyoshi could keep an eye on him. Luckily, Ieyasu's retainer band contained a number of skilled administrators, and these continued the work of consolidating the new Tokugawa domain even as their lord was away on Kyushu.
SEKIGAHARA
in 1598 Ieyasu was named one of the five regents responsible for ruling while young Toyotomi Hideyori came of age (Hideyoshi had intended there to be six, but one of the chosen, Kobayakawa Takakage, predeceased him). Ieyasu was probably the most powerful of these men, but Hideyoshi had chosen the others carefully. Ieyasu's four colleagues (Maeda Toshiie, Uesugi Kagekatsu, Môri Terumoto, and Ukita Hideie) were men whose loyalty to the Toyotomi name could be counted on after Hideyoshi died. Yet after Hideyoshi died in September 1598, Tokugawa almost immediately began making provocative alliances with families such as the Date and proceeded to alienate the other regents. Additionally, Ieyasu occupied first Fushimi, then Osaka Castle (following the death of Maeda Toshiie in 1599), actions that prompted suspicion on the part of the othe regents. Resistance to Ieyasu's moves was centered around Ishida Mitsunari, who unsuccessfully attempted to have Ieyasu assassinated in 1599. When that plan failed, Ishida himself was marked for death by a number of Tokugawa generals, and found refuge, oddly enough, with Ieyasu himself. Whatever Ieyasu's motives may have been in saving his rivals' life, by 1600 two camps had formed, one (the 'eastern') around Ieyasu, and the other (the 'western') around Ishida. The latter was determined to make the first move, and depended on Uesugi Kagekatsu, who held a vast fief northeast of Ieyasu. Ishida counted on Uesugi tying down Ieyasu long enough for the capital region to be firmly brought under Western control, at which point any move by Ieyasu could be countered from a footing of at least equal power. The Uesugi and Tokugawa began feuding in June and actual war came in August 1600. Ishida's grand strategy (such as it was) began to come apart almost immediately. Ieyasu left Uesugi to be contained by the Date and Mogami, and led an army westward in October. At the same time, Ishida did manage to take Fushimi and a number of other important points in the Kinai, but not with the timeliness required. Fate seemed to de dealing cards to both sides in equal measure, for on the eve of the final confrontation, both sides were without their full complements. Ieyasu's heir Hidetada (with 36,000 men) had unwisely chosen to dally about in Shinano attempting bring down Ueda while around the same number of 'western' samurai were too far away to aid in the fight. Ieyasu's ace in the hole, however, was knowledge that Kobayakawa Hideaki intended to betray Ishida during the battle, and the knowledge (provided by Kikkawa Tsunie) that the Môri (who had been insulted by Ishida) were none too eager to fight.
The Battle of Sekigahara opened on the misty morning of 21 October1600 with as many as 160,000 warriors prepared to fight the greatest battle in Japanese history. The irony was that there had been no rhyme or reason to the choice of this particular battlefield. While Saito Dosan had once said that he who controls Sekigahara controls Japan, this was simply where the two sides had the most room to maneuver. At the same time, the terrain favored Ishida. Tokugawa was largely staggered out in a valley, with his forward units dangerously exposed to encirclement. The key was Kobayakawa Hideaki. His 16,000 men, positioned on Mt. Matsuo and looking down at the forward Ishida and Tokugawa lines, would likely decide the issue one way or the other.
The battle at 0800 began with a spirited Tokugawa attack and developed into a general melee conducted under a driving rain. Ieyasu moved his headquarters forward at 1000 and anxiously eyed Kobayakawa, whose ranks had not moved since the start of the action. No real advantage was being enjoyed by either side, and Hidetada was still mnay hours away. The bright spot was that just as Kikawa Tsunie had promised, the Môri, largely positioned on the eastern slopes of Mt. Nangû, had yet to make any moves. Finally, at noon, Ieyasu ordered rifle fire directed at Kobayakawa's position and this did the trick - Hideaki ordered a general advance against Ishida's forces, and the battle turned in Ieyasu's favor. By that late afternoon, the Battle of Sekigahara was decided and Ieyasu was able to view the many heads taken and also to greet his son Hidetada very icily when he finally arrived. Over the next few days Ishida Mitsunari and a number of other chief 'western' commanders were caught and executed in Kyoto.
With the defeat of the Western cause, Ieyasu was the undisputed master of Japan. While he had never declared his intention to rule the country, this was the abiding effect of Sekigahara. He used his power to redistribute lands to those who had served him, and reduced the lands of those who had not, marking the latter as tozama (Outside Lords). For instance, he reduced the Mori holdings from 1,200,000 koku to just under 370,000 while granting Maeda Toshinaga an additional 360,000 koku, making the Maeda the wealthiest daimyo in Japan behind Ieyasu himself). Some of the 'western' daimyo he left untouched (such as the Shimazu), while others he stripped of all lands (Ukita, Chosokabe, and Miyabe, for instance). To an extent, he made his decisions in these matters with the understanding that Toyotomi Hideyori was still alive and well in the mighty Osaka Castle.
SHÔGUN
In 1603 the emperor granted Ieyasu the title of shôgun, an honor helped along by his 'Minamoto' genealogy. He held this post for only two years before officially retiring in favor of his son Hidetada. Retreating to Sumpu in Suruga province, he supervised the expansion of Chiyoda (Edo) Castle and the expansion of the surrounding town over the next few years, and conducted diplomatic business with the Dutch (1609) and Spanish, with whom he distanced Japan. In May 1611 Ieyasu returned to Kyoto at the head of 50,000 men, his trip ostensibly to attend the retirement of Emperor Goyôzei and the succession of Go-Mizonoô. During his stay in the Capital, Ieyasu ordered the expansion of the Imperial Court's buildings and grounds and asked the western daimyô to sign a three-part document vowing their fealty.2 Perhaps based on his experiences on this trip, he composed the Kuge shohatto in 1613, a document that placed restrictions on the activities of the nobility, essentially limiting that class to ceremonial and aesthetic pursuits. In 1615 he would order the preperation of the Buke Shohatto, a document which contained the injunctions contained within the 1611 order and was initially a 13-article code (amended in 1635). Drawing on previous house codes and earlier ideas, Ieyasu, possibly concerned for the future of his house, formalized what was esentially a 'house code' for the nation's daimyô. In a further move to secure the stability of the Tokugawa regime, he issued the final and most sweeping Christian Expulsion Edict in 1614.
The final threat to Tokugawa hegemony was Hideyori. Ironically, Hideyori does not appear to have harbored any particular desire to face Ieyasu. Ieyasu, though, was unwilling to take any chances, especially given his own advanced age. He engineered a pretext for war in 1614 over a convoluted and supposed slight that involved the casting of a great bell. At this point Hideyori had felt compelled to open the gates of Osaka to thousands of ronin for self-defense, and now found himself under attack. The initial Tokugawa assault (called the Osaka Winter Campaign) was repulsed bloodily, and despite the protests of Hidetada Ieyasu sought an indirect resolution of the situation. Guessing that the matron of the castle, Hideyori's mother Yodo-gimi, was a weak link that could be exploited, Ieyasu ordered that her location be determined and cannon fire directed in that area. This had the desired effect and to the shock of the defending generals, Yodo-gimi convinced Hideyori to negotiate. Ieyasu was seemingly magnimonious. He promised the defenders that he would honor a peaceful solution to the crisis, and that Hideyori would be allowed to retain his holdings in the Settsu-Kwatchi area. Moreover, no action would be taken against any member of the defending army. Hideyori, who had probably never wanted a war with a man he had grown up considering an uncle in the first place, agreed and ordered his followers to stand down. Ieyasu made a show of arranging for his army to withdraw, then promptly arranged for Osaka's outer moat to be filled in, the actual deed being done by Honda Masazumi. Hideyori protested, and Ieyasu ultimatly revoked his peace offer. The Osaka Summer Campaign essentially revolved around the climactic Battle of Tennôji in June 1615, the last great samurai battle and a Tokugawa victory. With the defeat of his army and the Tokugawa pouring through Osaka's gates, Hideyori and his mother commited suicide. In the aftermath Ieyasu personally ordered that Hideyori's infant son be executed and Osaka Castle largely dismantled.
The following year, Ieyasu fell ill and died in bed. Unlike Hideyoshi, he could pass away secure in the future of his house. The dynasty he had created was exceedingly solid, with three sub-branches (the Kii, Owari, and Mito) maintained for the sole purpose of providing an heir should the main branch fail to produce one. The daimyo were weary of war, and more or less content to enjoy the fruits of their labors. There would be disputes and grievances, but with the exception of the short and bloody Shimabara Rebellion, Japan would enjoy peace for over two hundred years. At the same time, Tokugawa Ieyasu had another legacy - never before had Japan been as socially rigid, nor had the common man and woman had so little control over their own lives. The daimyô - especially those tagged as tozama - would also suffer the brunt of the fledgling Tokugawa's heavy-handedness, with relief coming only after the death of the third shôgun Iemitsu in 1651.
Few leaders in Japanese history are as difficult to gauge as Tokugawa Ieyasu. At once fair and heartless, Ieyasu was a veteran of countless battles and a life fraught with vicissitudes that included the forced suicide of his eldest son and the execution of his first wife. He was moved to express compassion at the head of his defeated enemy Takeda Katsuyori and protected many former Takeda retainers from Nobunaga's wrath. His worries for the health of his granddaughter (Hideyori's widow) when she fell after the fall of Osaka Castle is touching in that one can see no real motive other then grandfatherly concern. At the same time, he rarely forgot a grudge, and once, as an adult, exectuted a prisoner who had insulted him in childhood. Yet he never forgot a friend either, and rarely left a loyal retainer unrewarded. He was at heart a rustic Mikawa samurai, and had little time for poetry or theater, spending most of his free time hawking or swimming, two of his favorite hobbies.
Occasionally foolhardy in his youth and at times exceedingly cautious in his later years, Ieyasu did not win all of his battles, but he won those that counted. He was also a calculating political gambler, and as much a schemer it would seem as his rival Ishida Mitsunari. More then anything else, though, Tokugawa Ieyasu was a man who seemed to have a sweeping vision and the ability to live his life as a master of Go might win a game-slowly but steadily, and with no doubt in the outcome.

The edo