Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Introduction

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was born from a low rank and successfully broke through as the great unifier, though how did he succeed in his life with many vicissitudes?

 His famous poem of “If a bird doesn’t sing, make it sing” represents his positive and active character because he always did his best in any circumstances. Why did he win success even though he had no samurai lineage? Let’s look at Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s successful life.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, samurai warrior from a peasant background

Historians tell that he was born from a peasant background, but it was unclear. They tell he was born in Nakamura (now around Nagoya Station), Owarinokuni and born as the eldest son between Kinoshita Yauemon, a foot soldier employed by Oda clan and his wife in 1537.  Historians tell that it is unclear if his childhood name was Hiyoshimaru because they argue that it is strange that a child of a peasant family was named like one of a samurai family. 

When Toyotomi Hideyoshi was 7, his father died. Soon after the death of his father, his mother married with Takeami from Doboshu, a group of entertainers for Oda clan again. However, Toyotomi Hideyoshi couldn’t go together with Takeami, so he moved out from his parents place as if he jumped when he was 15. 

Toyotomi Hideyoshi named him as Kinoshita Tokichiro after he left Owari to be a samurai, and he headed to Totominokuni. He served Matsushita Yukitsuna there and he gained Yukitsuna’s favor so much for his friendly character. In those times, Totominokuni was governed by Imagawa, but Yukitsuna was on a position of Baishin: rear vassal, which means he was a very weak vassal. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was afraid that serving Yukitsuna was not expected to gain a successful career, so he moved out from Matsushita clan and returned to Owari again. Then, one feudal warlord picked out Toyotomi Hideyoshi who was 18 at that time. It was Oda Nobunaga. He was still a young warlord then and freshly took over as the head of Oda clan.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi served Nobunaga as a low rank server then, however he gained Nobunaga’s favor for his native talent and positivity. He gradually stood out in Oda clan. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was very talented because there were anecdotes about him. For example, he repaired walls of Kiyosu Castle within a short period and saved the cost of firewood used in the castle by half. In his private life, he married with Nene, a stepdaughter of Maeda clan when he was 25, so he spent an enriched life both in public and private. He still was a low rank samurai, but as Oda clan expanded their power more, he was taken responsibility for important duties more.

Activities under Oda Nobunaga

In 1560, Nobunaga defeated Imagawa Yoshimoto at the Battle of Okehazama and got a chance to be more powerful. Moreover, he allied with Tokugawa Ieyasu of Mikawa, next to Owari to secure the safety of his backside and finally started out to gain control of Mino, the territory of Saito clan, his longtime rival. Although Nobunaga built a castle on Mt. Komaki near Kiso River, he needed a stronghold across the river for attacking Mino. Oda’s vassals tried to construct a fort many times, but Saito troops interrupted that. Then, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was picked out. 

After Toyotomi Hideyoshi thought about many ideas carefully, he firstly flew timbers from the upstream of Kiso River, while bringing Saito troops under control. And he unloaded the timbers, assembled them to construct the fort in Sunomata in no time. Behind the curtain, Hachisuka Koroku, a member of landlord groups along with Kiso River called “Kawanamishu” made many efforts to construct the fort. Reproduced Sunomata Castle now is constructed so steadily, while its fort was said to be very simple at that time. Event so, the fort was enough as the stronghold of Oda troops. However, there is no documented proof of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s “Overnight Castle in Sunomata”, so some historians argue that it is a fiction.

Thanks to Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s efforts, Nobunaga gained control of Mino and he succeeded in going up to Kyoto together with Ashikaga Yoshiaki. He assigned Yoshiaki to the shogunate, starting out to fight for unifying the nation. Nobunaga got rid of Miyoshi Sanninshu (The Three Chief Retainers of the Miyoshi Clan) and attacked Kozukuri Tomomasa of Kitaise, ordering Toyotomi Hideyoshi for capturing Azaka Castle. Toyotomi Hideyoshi successfully had done it, though he suffered some injuries: the first injuries for him. Moreover, Nobunaga assigned Toyotomi Hideyoshi to Kyoto Magistrate because he perhaps liked him for his adaptable character.

 In 1570, Nobunaga took the next step, targeting Asakura clan, who occupied Echizen. Oda troops led a large force to head to Echizen, though they had a surprising betrayal on the way. Azai Nagamasa, Nobunaga’s sister’s husband broke away from Nobunaga, which would give Nobunaga a chance to suffer a pincer attack by Asakura and Azai troops if he didn’t have any countermeasures. Nobunaga ordered retreat soon to Ikeda Katsumasa, Akechi Mitsuhide, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Toyotomi Hideyoshi and other warlords got through the enemies’ furious attack and successfully returned to Kyoto, which made his name.

 Afterward, Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi continued to fight against Azai and Asakura for a long time, though the fight came to end in 1573. Nobunaga who extinguished Asakura clan, firstly surrounded Odani Castle by a large force. However, Odani Castle was famous for its well-guarded castle, so it never felt like being fallen. Then, Toyotomi Hideyoshi spotted weak points of the castle and climbing the valley called Shimizudani under cover of night to make a night attack to some less protected parts. Therefore, the enemy got confused and Oda troops attacked it by seizing that opportunity. Azai Nagamasa got stuck and finally committed suicide. Odani Castle fell.

 Toyotomi Hideyoshi was complimented for his efforts and was given the former Azai territory. He entered Odani Castle once but constructed a castle in Imahama, naming it Nagahama Castle. Toyotomi Hideyoshi finally realized his earnest desire to be a lord of one country and one castle. What’s more, in parallel to that, he renamed Hashiba Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1575, he left for the battle in Nagashino. He led a company of samurai warriors, defeating Takeda troops, and dedicated himself to the win. Around that time, he already had stood out as a powerful warlord and fought a decisive battle with Mori clan as a military commander of Chugoku area, after all.

The Honno-ji Incident and Kiyosu Conference

Afterward, Toyotomi Hideyoshi won one after another battle; Miki Castle and Tottori Castle fell with his unique military strategy. In 1582, his troops entered Bitchu Province (now Okayama Prefecture); he attacked Bitchu Takamatsu Castle, however, he struggled so much with its well-guarded system in a swampy place. Then, he adopted Kuroda Kanbei’ssuggestion: stemming Ashimori River to flood the castle. Takamatsu Castle consequently became like an island in the lake and Mori troops as reinforcement of the castle lord, couldn’t involve in the battle.

However, Toyotomi Hideyoshi who had no doubt about victory received the news: the death of Nobunaga by Akechi Mitsuhide’s betrayal on June 2. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was shocked and was not affordable to fight with Mori clan. He buried the hatchet with Mori clan under magnanimous conditions and returned to Kansai region. It is later famous as “Chugoku Ogaeshi” (Quick return from the Chugoku Region by Hashiba Toyotomi Hideyoshi). On the way to the Kansai region by Hashiba Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Kanbei’s plan was right; he had prepared for anything by piling up food at every point of the road and securing rest places for warriors. Therefore, Hashiba troops could tore through the road for less than 10 days and early reached Settsu on June 11. Mitsuhide side however had few supports, while Toyotomi Hideyoshi got together with Oda Nobutaka, Nobunaga’s third son, Niwa Nagahide, and Takayama Ukon. Toyotomi Hideyoshi fought against Mitsuhide with more than twofold force than Mitsuhide’s one. It was the Battle of Yamazaki.

 Mitsuhide took on Hashiba troops on the narrow pathways of Yamazaki but Mitsuhide’s force was extremely small compared with Hashiba’s one. Therefore, advantageous Hashiba troops pushed and finally broke through Mitsuhide troops. Mitsuhide couldn’t put up and escaped. Soon, he was attacked by local people and died. Toyotomi Hideyoshi came to hold a leading position in Oda clan as the commended person for defeating Akechi troops completely and avenging Mitsuhide.  After a few months, Kiyosu Conference was held for determining the future of Oda clan. 

Common belief tells that the conference was agonized for determination of the successor of Oda clan, while historians told that Sanhoshi (Oda Hidenobu), the heireldest son of Oda Nobutada was already determined as the successor in the conference. Oda Nobutaka was determined as a guardian of Sanhoshi. Also, regarding the distribution of property inheritance of Nobunaga and Nobutada, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was also a person of merit, was determined. By the way, Toyotomi Hideyoshi acquired a territory of 280,000 koku of rice (one koku was considered enough rice to feed one person for a year) in Yamashiro, Harima, and Tanba combined through having adopted Hidekatsu, the fourth son of Nobunaga.

The biggest advantage for Toyotomi Hideyoshi, however, was that his territory included Kyoto, the capital of Japan. Indeed, the political initiative was in Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s hands. This is the beginning of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s path to rule the nation. To gain substantial control, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had to get rid of Shibata Katsuie, senior retainer to the Oda clan. Then, Toyotomi Hideyoshi stirred up things for Nobutaka who had relationship with Katsuie, by accusing falsely him of his refusal to let Sanhoshi go even though he was supposed to be brought up in Azuchi Castle. Toyotomi Hideyoshi surrounded Gifu Castle with a large army, and he made Nobutaka surrender and deprived Sanhoshi.

 On the other hand, Katsuie was not defeated. In the spring of 1583, he led the army into Kitaomi triggered by raising an army by Takigawa Kazumasu in Ise. Against this, Toyotomi Hideyoshi also raised a large army and set up his position in Kitaomi. Although both armies conglutinated for a while, Nobutaka rebelled again, and the war situation changed suddenly.

Against Toyotomi Hideyoshi having led the main army to subjugate Nobutaka, Katuie moved his troops as if he surprised Toyotomi Hideyoshi, attacking to occupy Toyotomi Hideyoshi forts. But Toyotomi Hideyoshi reacted as soon as he received the report. He tore through about 50 km at once and closed to the front of Katuie’s territory. Confused Shibata troops couldn’t make it in time to retreat, and finally collapsed, escaping to Echizen. Toyotomi Hideyoshi became the most powerful person in Oda clan person by extinguishing Katsuie and Nobutaka. After that, Toyotomi Hideyoshi constructed vast Osaka Castle on the site of Ishiyama Hongan-ji Temple as a residential castle perfect for the unifier. However, he had an enemy: Oda Nobukatsu, another son of Nobunaga. Although Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Nobukatsu had cooperated, Nobukatsu had a big doubt on Toyotomi Hideyoshi as his usurpation of Oda clan gradually came out. 

As a result, Nobukatsu cooperated with Tokugawa Ieyasu, a ruler of 5 provinces, expressing his rebellious attitude against Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Assigned as Kanpaku (Chief advisor for the Emperor), Unified the nation

 In 1584, Nobukatsu and Ieyasu raised an army and advanced to Owari. On the other hand, Toyotomi Hideyoshi also aimed at Komaki in Owari with a large army of 100,000. Ieyasu showed his tenacious fighting there; he placed set up the main territory in Mt. Komaki where Nobunaga’s castle used to be, and never let Toyotomi Hideyoshi take advantage of it. Moreover, another Toyotomi Hideyoshi troops aiming to enter Mikawa, Ieyasu’s territory were defeated in Nagakute, which consequently became impossible to bring it to a short decisive battle. Chosokabe clan and Saiga-shu (a group of combined local lords, local samurai who resided in private estates in the center of Saikasho in the northwest part of Kii Province) worked behind Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the battle situation gradually became a stalemate without a decisive hit.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi who felt frantic took further step: reconciliation with Nobukatsu under generous conditions: guarantee of Owari and Ise as Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s territory and acceptance Toyotomi Hideyoshi as successor of Oda clan instead of Sanhoshi. Nobukatsu was bored of battles, so he accepted Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s conditions and solely concluded a peace with Toyotomi Hideyoshi without Ieyasu’s acceptance. 

Ieyasu who was betrayed by Nobukatsu, returned to Hamamatsu, which made Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s hegemony became stable. Toyotomi Hideyoshi couldn’t ignore Ieyasu, so he entirely asked Ieyasu to be a retainer to him. Toyotomi Hideyoshi expressed his attitude in a manner paying no regard to appearances by marrying off his younger sister to Ieyasu and giving his mother to Ieyasu as a hostage. For Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s awareness of the strength of Ieyasu troops, he strongly wanted to ask Ieyasu to be a retainer.        

Afterward, Ieyasu headed to Osaka Castle and had an audience with Toyotomi Hideyoshi, which was the moment when Toyotomi Hideyoshi got his desire. He seemed to be happy and picked up Ieyasu’s hands for joy. Behind the scenes, Toyotomi Hideyoshi made Chosokabe clan and Saiga-shu who were an obstacle for him surrender nearly at the same time. In 1586, his long- cherished desire came true. For being privately adopted child of Konoe Sakihisa and joining Fujiwara family, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was newly given a sir name of “Toyotomi” from Emperor Ogimachi. He assigned to Kanpaku (Chief advisor for the Emperor) from Dajyodaijin (Chancellor of the Realm) and reigned at the top of Toyotomi administration.

In fact, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was slated to be a privately adopted child of Ashikaga Yoshiaki and be assigned as Barbarian-Subduing Generalissimo (“Seii Taishogun”), however, Yoshiaki denied that. Toyotomi Hideyoshi born from a peasant background importantly thought of the support of the Imperial Court. He made efforts to authorize himself with heat through creating his sir name of Toyotomi. In the next year, he advanced his troops to Kyushu area and made Shimazu clan surrender. 

In 1590, he extinguished Hojo clan at the Siege of Odawara. He could control every feudal lord at will, for example, he made Tokugawa Ieyasu relocate to Kanto area and forfeited the rank of Samurai and properties of Oda Nobukatsu who denied the order of territory relocation. Moreover, he dispatched his troops to Tohoku area and suppressed rebellious groups there. He finally succeeded in unifying the nation. However, after the Siege of Odawara, he came to lack his political judgement. He had irrational suspicion for his aide and his family. Moreover, he had a delusion of grandeur and ordered a foolish plan to dispatch troops to Korea. He sent an expeditionary force of 200,000 to the Korean Peninsula for the conquest of Ming dynasty, and the fierce battle spread. The battle became a stalemate without winning a decisive victory and became a quagmire combined with the arrival of Ming’s reinforcements.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, however, didn’t know the details of the battle, so he ordered his troops to march further and there was a conflict between feudal warlords on site and shogunate governors. This became the remote cause of the Battle of Sekigahara. In the initial Japanese invasion of Korea named, ”Bunroku-no-eki”, a peace between Korea and Japan was concluded, but it was broken and the second invasion named, “Keicho-no eki ”started. Japanese forces struggled to fight and finally focused on the protection of the castles in a maritime area alone. Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s dream of conquering the Ming dynasty became almost an illusion.

The Death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

In 1593, the long-awaited biological child Ohiroi (later known as Toyotomi Hideyori) was born. However, Toyotomi Hideyoshi appointed his nephew Hidetsugu as the next unifier, and he had already assumed the post of Kanpaku. If he discharged Hidetsugu, it would be beneath the dignity of Toyotomi clan. However, a big gap was formed between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Hidetsugu almost at the same time when Ohiroi was born.

Until now, it has been a common belief that Toyotomi Hideyoshi falsely suspected Hidetsugu of treason because he was in the way, but it cannot be said so generically. Hidetsugu had clearly sounded Toyotomi Hideyoshi out on delivery of Kanpaku position to Toyotomi Hideyoshi after Hideyori grew up, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi approved it. However, some vassals spread a rumor about Hidetsugu’s rebellion. Toyotomi Hideyoshi gradually came to believe the rumor and asked Hidetsugu to submit the written oath. Hidetsugu went to Fushimi Castle to meet Toyotomi Hideyoshi and give an excuse for no intention of rebelling, but it seems that Toyotomi Hideyoshi never met him. In despair, Hidetsugu went up to Mt. Koya and committed suicide without any explanation.

In a record of those times, “Kanpaku Chikuden” (“Kanpaku escaped”) is written, so Hidetsugu with a pessimistic view of the future went to Mt. Koya without permission. Because of Hidetsugu’s suicide, Hideyori had no supporters within the Toyotomi family, which consequently caused the extinction of Toyotomi clan.

Afterward, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was on his deathbed. Generally, Hidetsugu would be handed over the baton from Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but he was already dead. Therefore, he gathered the powerful feudal lords and established “Gotairo and Gobugyo System” (Council of Five Elders and Five Major Magistrates). In the system, the administration was decided by consensus, but it didn’t work, unlike Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s intention. On August 18, 1598, Toyotomi Hideyoshi died at the age of 62 while worrying about young Hideyori.

Summary of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Toyotomi Hideyoshi went down in history as the greatest upstart in Japanese history, but he might have had more luck than his ability. He was discovered by a lord called Nobunaga, turned the Honnoji Incident into an opportunity, and was blessed with abundant human resources, so he must have been a rare lucky man. And as he is known by many anecdotes, he is said to have been loved by everyone with his bright and uninhibited personality.

However, everyone has positive and negative aspects. Toyotomi Hideyoshi made his negative aspect come out significantly in his later life, which consequently tarnished his twilight years and ruined his heroic stories. Even so, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a rare hero with no doubt. He represents as a model of the Japanese success story and his performance shines brilliantly.