Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1582-1598): The Peasant Who Unified Japan

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the Japanese warlord who, between 1582 and 1590, completed the unification of Japan after more than a century of civil war. Born into a poor family with no samurai rank, he rose through the service of Oda Nobunaga and, after Nobunaga’s murder, defeated or won over every rival lord. His land surveys, disarmament of the peasantry and new class rules shaped Japanese society for centuries, while his invasions of Korea were among the most destructive wars in East Asian history.

Background: from Nakamura to Nobunaga’s general

Hideyoshi was born in 1537 (some accounts say 1536) in the village of Nakamura in Owari Province, near modern Nagoya. His father, Yaemon, served as a foot soldier or labourer for the Oda clan and died when Hideyoshi was young. Many colourful stories of his childhood come from later popular biographies and cannot be confirmed.

As a young man he entered the service of Oda Nobunaga, probably in the mid-1550s, under the name Kinoshita Tokichiro. He proved a capable organiser and soldier. By the early 1570s he had taken the name Hashiba Hideyoshi, and after the destruction of the Asai clan in 1573 he received his first castle domain at Nagahama on Lake Biwa.

From 1577 Nobunaga gave him command of the campaign against the powerful Mori clan in western Japan. In 1582 Hideyoshi was besieging Takamatsu Castle in Bitchu Province, famously by damming a river to flood it.

The race for power after Honno-ji

On 21 June 1582 Nobunaga was killed in Kyoto by his general Akechi Mitsuhide in the Honno-ji Incident. When the news reached him, Hideyoshi quickly made peace with the Mori and marched his army back towards Kyoto, covering roughly 200 kilometres in little more than a week.

On 2 July 1582 he defeated Mitsuhide at the Battle of Yamazaki, south-west of Kyoto. Mitsuhide was killed while fleeing. As the avenger of his lord, Hideyoshi now had a strong claim to lead the Oda coalition.

At a meeting of Nobunaga’s senior vassals at Kiyosu Castle in July 1582, Hideyoshi backed Nobunaga’s infant grandson, Sanboshi, as heir, a choice that left real power with the regents. His chief rival, Shibata Katsuie, was defeated at the Battle of Shizugatake in 1583 and killed himself.

Osaka Castle and the title of regent

In 1583 Hideyoshi began building Osaka Castle on the former site of the Ishiyama Hongan-ji temple. It became the largest fortress in Japan, with a gilded main tower, and the centre of a growing commercial city.

In 1584 he fought Tokugawa Ieyasu and Nobunaga’s son Oda Nobukatsu in the Komaki and Nagakute campaign. The fighting ended in a stalemate and a negotiated settlement, after which Ieyasu became Hideyoshi’s vassal.

Because he lacked noble ancestry, Hideyoshi could not easily become shogun. Instead he was adopted into the aristocratic Konoe family and in 1585 was appointed kampaku, the imperial regent. In 1586 the court granted him the new surname Toyotomi and the post of Grand Minister of State.

Completing unification, 1585–1590

Hideyoshi then brought the remaining regions under control. In 1585 his armies subdued Shikoku, and in 1587 a huge campaign forced the Shimazu clan of Kyushu to submit.

The last major independent power in eastern Japan was the Hojo clan of Odawara. In 1590 Hideyoshi besieged Odawara with an army often estimated at well over 200,000 men, and the Hojo surrendered after about three months. The lords of northern Japan then submitted. For the first time since the 15th century, all of Japan acknowledged a single ruler.

Hideyoshi transferred Ieyasu to the former Hojo lands in the Kanto region, centred on the small town of Edo, the future Tokyo.

Hideyoshi did not destroy most of the lords who submitted. Instead he confirmed them in their domains, often reduced or moved, in return for loyalty, hostages and military service. He frequently transferred lords from one region to another, weakening their local roots. The result was a federation of great lords under a single overlord rather than a centralised state, a structure the Tokugawa later inherited.

Reforms that reshaped Japan

Land surveys. From 1582 onward Hideyoshi ordered surveys of farmland across his territories, later known as the Taiko kenchi. Fields were measured and their yield assessed in koku of rice, and each plot was registered to a cultivator. The system gave rulers a standard measure of wealth for taxes and military obligations.

The Sword Hunt. In 1588 Hideyoshi ordered the confiscation of swords, guns and other weapons from farmers and religious institutions, officially to provide metal for a great Buddha statue in Kyoto. The Sword Hunt helped end the armed peasant leagues and the warrior-farmers of the Sengoku era.

Fixing status. Edicts issued in 1591 forbade samurai to become farmers or merchants and farmers to leave their fields for trade. Together with the surveys and the Sword Hunt, they sharpened the division between warriors and commoners.

Policy towards Christians. In July 1587 Hideyoshi issued an edict ordering Jesuit missionaries to leave Japan, though it was loosely enforced at first. In February 1597 he had 26 Catholics, both Japanese and European, crucified in Nagasaki.

Culture and court. Hideyoshi used splendour to display his authority, and to make up for his lack of noble birth he sought legitimacy through the imperial court. In 1588 he received Emperor Go-Yozei at the Jurakudai, where the great lords swore loyalty to the emperor and, through him, to Hideyoshi. His Kyoto palace, the Jurakudai, was completed in 1587, and in the 1590s he built Fushimi Castle south of the city. He was a great patron of the tea ceremony and in 1587 held the Great Kitano Tea Gathering, open to people of all ranks.

His relationship with the tea master Sen no Rikyu, once his close adviser, ended in 1591, when Hideyoshi ordered Rikyu to commit suicide. The reasons remain unclear.

The invasions of Korea

Hideyoshi’s ambitions extended beyond Japan. He planned to conquer Ming China and demanded that Joseon Korea allow his armies passage. When Korea refused, he launched an invasion in 1592 with an army of roughly 150,000 to 160,000 men.

Japanese forces took Seoul within weeks and advanced to Pyongyang, but Korean naval victories under Admiral Yi Sun-sin, guerrilla resistance and the intervention of Ming armies halted them. After negotiations failed, Hideyoshi sent a second invasion in 1597. The Imjin War devastated Korea and ended only with Japan’s withdrawal after his death.

The war’s human cost was enormous, though exact figures are unknown. Tens of thousands of Koreans were carried off to Japan as captives, among them skilled potters whose descendants helped found famous Japanese ceramic traditions such as Arita ware. Within Japan, the expense and losses of the campaigns weakened several of the lords who had served Hideyoshi most loyally.

Succession, death and legacy

Hideyoshi’s infant son Tsurumatsu, born in 1589 to his consort Yodo-dono, died in 1591. He then named his nephew Toyotomi Hidetsugu as kampaku and took the title taiko, retired regent. In 1593 Yodo-dono gave birth to another son, Hideyori. In 1595 Hidetsugu was accused of plotting, ordered to commit suicide, and many members of his household were executed.

Hideyoshi died at Fushimi Castle on 18 September 1598. He left five-year-old Hideyori under the protection of a council of five great lords, the Five Elders, led by Tokugawa Ieyasu. The arrangement soon collapsed.

In 1600 Ieyasu won the Battle of Sekigahara, and in 1603 he became shogun. Hideyori remained at Osaka Castle until the Tokugawa besieged it in 1614–1615; the castle fell and Hideyori died in 1615, ending the Toyotomi line.

Yet much of the Tokugawa order rested on Hideyoshi’s work: the land surveys, the disarmed countryside and the separation of warriors from farmers. In Japanese memory he remains the great example of a man who rose from nothing. He was deified after his death as Hokoku Daimyojin, and although the Tokugawa suppressed his cult, it was revived in the Meiji era, when shrines to him were restored. In Korea, by contrast, he is remembered above all as the leader of the invasions of the 1590s. The present main tower of Osaka Castle is a concrete reconstruction completed in 1931.

Key people

• Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598): the unifier of Japan.
• Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582): his lord and the first of the three great unifiers.
• Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616): a rival turned vassal, who succeeded to power after Hideyoshi’s death.
• Akechi Mitsuhide: Nobunaga’s assassin, defeated by Hideyoshi at Yamazaki.
• Toyotomi Hideyori (1593–1615): Hideyoshi’s son and heir.

Timeline

• 1537: Hideyoshi is born in Nakamura, Owari.
• 1573: He receives Nagahama as his first domain.
• 1582, 21 June: Nobunaga dies in the Honno-ji Incident.
• 1582, 2 July: Hideyoshi defeats Akechi Mitsuhide at Yamazaki.
• 1583: He defeats Shibata Katsuie and begins Osaka Castle.
• 1585: He becomes kampaku, imperial regent.
• 1587: Kyushu submits; the edict against the Jesuit missionaries is issued.
• 1588: The Sword Hunt edict is issued.
• 1590: The Hojo surrender at Odawara; Japan is unified.
• 1592: The first invasion of Korea begins.
• 1598, 18 September: Hideyoshi dies at Fushimi.

Why it matters

Hideyoshi ended the Sengoku period’s century of civil war and created the framework of a unified Japanese state. His reforms fixed the shape of society that the Tokugawa shoguns maintained until the mid-19th century, while his wars in Korea left a bitter legacy that still shapes memories in East Asia.