Text/Kingdom Building
In the summer of 1615, Toyotomi Hiderai was defeated in the battle against Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Battle of Oitasha, and together with his mother, Lady Yodo, he was cut off in the rice barn. The victorious Tokugawa Ieyasu executed the toyotomi family's men, young and old, resulting in the extinction of the world-famous Toyotomi Hideyoshi. From then on, Japan entered the Edo shogunate era, dominated by Tokugawa Ieyasu. Later historians have summarized the reasons why the Toyotomi regime was replaced by Tokugawa Ieyasu in two main ways.
01, waste long standing young
Born in 1537, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was originally a low-ranking samurai, but in his youth he defected to the de facto ruler of Japan, Oda Nobunaga, and gradually stood out in the warlord melee and became Oda Nobunaga's successor.
In 1582, Oda Nobunaga died of illness, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi assumed the position of Sekihaku (equivalent to the current prime minister, the de facto ruler of Japan), and in the following years he gradually eliminated political enemies and unified all of Japan.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a brilliant military man and statesman, but appeared powerless when it came to succession. Because his two biological sons, who had passed the prime of their prime, had died one after another, they faced the dilemma of having no successor. In desperation, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had to adopt his nephew Miyoshi Nobuyoshi as his son, renamed him Toyotomi Hideji, and cultivated him as his heir. Toyotomi Hideji was a warrior who had experienced many wars and also had a certain political talent, and there was nothing wrong with inheriting Toyotomi Hideyoshi's position.
In 1591, at the age of 54, Toyotomi Hideyoshi ceded Theoshi Kanba's seat to his adopted son Toyotomi Hideji and took command of it himself, and was known as "Taikoku" (second only to the emperor's honorific title). Three years later, the 57-year-old Toyotomi Hideyoshi actually gave birth to another biological son, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. With his own son, Taiko toyotomi Hideyoshi was not happy with his adopted son Toyotomi Hideji, and deliberately found an excuse to force Toyotomi Hideji to give way. Toyotomi Hideji had already seen Toyotomi Hideyoshi's intentions, but he was powerless to do so, and could only vent his anger by killing innocents indiscriminately. In the middle of this time, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's arms, toyotomi Hideji was convicted and exiled to a desert island. Toyotomi Hideji was humiliated and committed suicide by cutting his abdomen. All 39 members of the family were killed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The biggest roadblock in front of Toyotomi Hiderai was shattered.
02. The establishment of the five big men and five pursuit systems led to the split of the regime
In the autumn of 1598, Taikaku Toyotomi Hideyoshi fell seriously ill. At this time, Japan was still fighting with the Ming army in Korea, and in order to let the young Toyotomi Hideyoshi (who was 5 years old at the time) succeed smoothly, Toyotomi Hideyoshi ingeniously set up the five elders and five pursuit systems, so that these powerful daimyo under his command could contain each other and jointly assist the young lord. Toyotomi Hideyoshi thought he was very calculated, and went back to the west with peace of mind. However, the political system he painstakingly established became the gravedigger of the Toyotomi family.
First, let's introduce the five elders and five pursuit systems established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In short, he served as the five elders under the five most powerful and prestigious daimyōs, namely Tokugawa Ieyasu, Maeda Toshiyasu, Ukita Hideyasu, Mori Keigen Mori, and Takaaki Kohayakawa (after Toyotomi Hideyoshi's death, his adopted son Hideaki Kohayakawa succeeded to the throne). Of the five, Tokugawa Ieyasu and Maeda Toshiyasu were the strongest, Ukita Hideya was young and vigorous (in his early 20s at the time) and the most loyal to the Toyotomi family, and Maori Keimoto and Kohayakawa Hideaki were wall-riding factions, who gave more benefits and whoever was strong turned to whomever was strong. According to the political system formulated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi during his lifetime, the five elders were responsible for the decision-making of major government affairs, and the people who actually carried out the decisions were the ones who actually carried out the decisions with the five acts. The five pursuits are: Ishida Misei, Asano Nagamasa, Maeda Gene, Nagasho Masaya, and Masuda Nagamori. Although the political status of the five pursuits is not as high as the five elders, they are all real power figures and still have a major influence on Japan's political situation. In the Five Bongsei, Ishida Sansei and Asano Nagamasa, one of the Five Elders, Mori Kei, was the head of the Maeda, Maeda Genyo submitted to Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Nagashiro Masayoshi Nagashiro and Masuda Nagamori, although loyal to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, did not participate in the party struggle.
In 1599, Toshiya Maeda, who was able to balance Tokugawa Ieyasu, died, and his eldest son, Toshinaga Maeda, succeeded to the throne of the Five Elders. Maeda Toshinaga was an unlearned guy, not a rival to Tokugawa Ieyasu at all, and the actual power of the Japanese government gradually shifted to Tokugawa Ieyasu. Seeing that the political balance was broken, several elders and Morigo stopped doing anything and united to arm against Tokugawa Ieyasu.
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In 1600, the Sekigahara War broke out. Maeda Toshinaga, Ukita Hideyasu, Ishida Sansei, Asano Nagamasa, and others promoted Maori Keigen to the rank of grand general (known historically as the Western Route Army) and concentrated more than 100,000 troops to fight a decisive battle with Tokugawa Ieyasu (historically known as the Eastern Route Army) in Sekigahara. Logically, at that time, Tokugawa Ieyasu and his allies only had more than 80,000 troops, and the Western Army had the advantage in military strength and politics, and it was not difficult to defeat Tokugawa Ieyasu. However, the reality is very face-slapping, and several daimyōs of the Western Route Army are only unable to contribute, even including the general Maori Huiyuan. They held their ground and let the blood-strong Ukita Hideyasu take 170,000 men and fight with Tokugawa Ieyasu. After the defeat of the Ukita Hideyoshi family, Mori Akimoto felt frightened and asked the young lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi to personally march. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was only 7 years old, how could he go into battle and kill the enemy? Lady Yodo disagreed and hid in the deep palace with Toyotomi Hideyoshi. On September 14 of the same year, Tokugawa Ieyasu's Eastern Route Army defeated the main force of the Western Route Army and won the Battle of Sekigahara. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was ostensibly a co-lord of the Japanese people, but the actual power was already in the hands of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
In 1613, the adult Toyotomi Hideyoshi was not willing to become a puppet of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and with the support of some daimyo loyal to the Toyotomi family, he actively recruited ronin from all over the world and prepared to compete with Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokugawa Ieyasu had been recuperating for many years, and he knew every move of Toyotomi Hiderai's granddaughter-in-law, and at first Tokugawa Ieyasu did not want to eliminate Toyotomi Hideyoshi by force, but wanted to "blackmail the Son of Heaven to order the princes", which could justifiably eliminate political enemies without leaving a name for betraying the lord. Later, seeing that Toyotomi Hiderai's strength was developing rapidly, there was a great possibility of sparks, so he mobilized a large army and launched an attack on Osaka Castle, the old nest of the Toyotomi family.
In 1615, under the siege of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Osaka Castle was about to fall. Lady Yodo and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, unwilling to be captured and humiliated, committed suicide in a rice barn in Osaka Castle, along with Toyotomi Hideyoshi's close associates, Osamu Ōno and Ōzo Shōnen, who were only 22 years old at the time of their deaths. After Tokugawa Ieyasu captured Osaka, he executed Toyotomi Hideyoshi's son, Causing Toyotomi Hideyoshi to be extinct. Only Toyotomi Hideyoshi's wife, Tokugawa Chihime, survived because she was the granddaughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
At this point, Tokugawa Ieyasu completely replaced the dominance of the Toyotomi family and created the famous Edo shogunate (also known as the Tokugawa shogunate) in Japan, and Tokugawa Ieyasu was the first shogun of the Edo shogunate. The Edo shogunate held 15 shogunates until 1868, when the last shogun, Tokugawa Keiki, was overthrown by artillery by the East India Company, and the Tokugawa family ruled Japan for a total of 264 years.