The life of Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a daimyo in the Sengoku period that combined the political camp of Japan. He fulfilled his earlier liege lord which is Oda Nobunaga. It brought him an end to the Sengoku period. Momoyama period, which is the period where he ruled was named after hideyoshi’s castle. Hideyoshi was known as Japan’s second “great unifier”.
Hideyoshi’s life was not that known before 1570. Hideyoshi do not speak most about his past in his autobiography. Hideyoshi was born in nakamura-ku, Nagoya which is the home of the oda clan. His given name was hiyoshi-maru which means “bounty of the sun”.
His nickname was kozaru that means “little monkey”. This name was given by his lord oda nobunaga for the reason that his facial features and skinny form is like a monkey. Hideyoshi refused his life in the temple, but instead, he go on a search for adventure. With his name of Kinoshita Tokichiro, he started to join the imagawa clan. He was a servant of a local ruler, matsushita yukitsuna. He served imagawa yoshimoto and sugura province for a time.
In 1547 he went back to owari province to join the oda clan. This clan was headed by oda nobunaga. He administered the reconstruction of kiyosu castle according to his biographers. Hideyoshi married asano nagamasa’s daughter, nene at 1561. He repaired sunomata castle with his younger brother, toyotomi hidenaga, and some bandits, hachisuka masakatsu and maeno nagayasu. In sunomata he constructed a fort and indent ified a secret way into mount inaba after which much of the garrison surrendered.
As a negotiator, hideyoshi is very successful. He persuades a couple of Mino warlords to desolate the saito clan in 1564. hideyoshi is communicating with the Koreans since 1587 although he intended to conquer ming china. At first, Koreans refused to talk with him for he is an ally of ming china. Hideyoshi commanded Ukita Hidei to the field marshal, and had them go to the Korean peninsula in april, 1592. On febuary 5, 1597, he had killed 26 Christians to scare Japanese who wants to convert to Christianity. They were killed by the crucifixion in Nagasaki.
After a couple of years in negotiations, he commanded kobayakawa hideaki to be the head of the invasion forces. However, their hard work on the Korean peninsula became a failure than the first invasion. Hideyoshi’s forces were unable to invade China because of the desperation of his failure to have Korea. Military expeditions left his clan’s coffers and strength depleted rather than to strengthen his position. The members of the council of five regents were not able to have the dreams of tokugawa ieyasu in check after his death. Kato kiyomasa and fukushima masanori two of hideyoshi’s top generals, fought for the war. However, they went back to look for the toyotomi clan castellan ishida mitsunari in power. They move over with tokugawa ieyasu and held a low esteem. Hideyori, hideyoshi’s son, lost the power his father had. At the end, tokugawa ieyasu became shogun of the battle of sekigahara.
Related posts:
