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Japan REUNIFICATION, 1573-1600
Between 1560 and 1600, powerful military leaders arose
to
defeat the warring daimyo and unify Japan. Three
major
figures dominated the period in succession: Oda Nobunaga
(1534-82),
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98), and Tokugawa Ieyasu
(1542-1616), each
of whom emerged as a major overlord with large military
forces
under his command. As their power increased, they looked
to the
imperial court in Kyoto for sanction. In 1568 Nobunaga,
who had
defeated another overlord's attempt to attack Kyoto in
1560,
marched on the capital, gained the support of the emperor,
and
installed his own candidate in the succession struggle for
shogun.
Backed by military force, Nobunaga was able to control the
bakufu.
Initial resistance to Nobunaga in the Kyoto region came
from
the Buddhist monks, rival daimyo, and hostile
merchants.
Surrounded by his enemies, Nobunaga struck first at the
secular
power of the militant Tendai Buddhists, destroying their
monastic
center at Mount Hiei near Kyoto and killing thousands of
monks in
1571. By 1573 he had defeated the local daimyo,
banished the
last Ashikaga shogun, and ushered in what historians call
the
Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573-1600), named after the
castles of
Nobunaga and Hideyoshi. Having taken these major steps
toward
reunification, Nobunaga then built a seven-story castle
surrounded
by stone walls at Azuchi on the shore of Lake Biwa. The
castle was
able to withstand firearms and became a symbol of the age
of
reunification. Nobunaga's power increased as he enfeoffed
the
conquered daimyo, broke down the barriers to free
commerce,
and drew the humbled religious communities and merchants
into his
military structure. He secured control of about one-third
of the
provinces through the use of large-scale warfare, and he
institutionalized administrative practices, such as
systematic
village organization, tax collection, and standardized
measurements. At the same time, other daimyo, both
those
that Nobunaga had conquered and those beyond his control,
built
their own heavily fortified castles and modernized their
garrisons.
In 1577 Nobunaga dispatched his chief general, Hideyoshi,
to
conquer twelve western Honshu provinces. The war was a
protracted
affair, and in 1582, when Nobunaga led an army to assist
Hideyoshi,
he was assassinated.
After destroying the forces responsible for Nobunaga's
death,
Hideyoshi was rewarded with a joint guardianship of
Nobunaga's
heir, who was a minor. By 1584 Hideyoshi had eliminated
the three
other guardians, taken complete control of Kyoto, and
become the
undisputed successor of his late overlord. A commoner by
birth and
without a surname, Hideyoshi was adopted by the Fujiwara
family,
given the surname Toyotomi, and granted the title
kanpaku,
representing civil and military control of all Japan. By
the
following year, he had secured alliances with three of the
nine
major daimyo coalitions and continued the war of
reunification in Shikoku and northern Kyushu. In 1590,
with an army
of 200,000 troops, Hideyoshi defeated his last formidable
rival,
who controlled the Kanto region of eastern Honshu. The
remaining
contending daimyo capitulated, and the military
reunification of Japan was complete.
All of Japan was controlled by the dictatorial
Hideyoshi either
directly or through his sworn vassals, and a new national
government structure had evolved: a country unified under
one
daimyo alliance but still decentralized. The basis
of the
power structure was again the distribution of territory. A
new unit
of land measurement and assessment--the koku--was
instituted. One koku was equivalent to about 180
liters of
rice; daimyo were by definition those who held
lands capable
of producing 10,000 koku or more of rice. Hideyoshi
personally controlled 2 million of the 18.5 million
koku
total national assessment (taken in 1598). Tokugawa
Ieyasu, a
powerful central Honshu daimyo (not completely
under
Hideyoshi's control), held 2.5 million koku.
Despite Hideyoshi's tremendous strength and the fear in
which
he was held, his position was far from secure. He
attempted to
rearrange the daimyo holdings to his advantage by,
for
example, reassigning the Tokugawa family to the conquered
Kanto
region and surrounding their new territory with more
trusted
vassals. He also adopted a hostage system for
daimyo wives
and heirs at his castle town at Osaka and used marriage
alliances
to enforce feudal bonds. He imposed the koku system
and land
surveys to reassess the entire nation. In 1590 Hideyoshi
declared
an end to any further class mobility or change in social
status,
reinforcing the class distinctions between cultivators and
bushi (only the latter could bear arms). He
provided for an
orderly succession in 1591 by taking the title
taiko, or
retired kanpaku, turning the regency over to his
son
Hideyori. Only toward the end of his life did Hideyoshi
try to
formalize the balance of power by establishing certain
administrative bodies: the five-member Board of Regents
(one of
them Ieyasu), sworn to keep peace and support the
Toyotomi, the
five-member Board of House Administrators for routine
policy and
administrative matters, and the three-member Board of
Mediators,
who were charged with keeping peace between the first two
boards.
Momoyama art (1573-1615), named after the hill on which
Hideyoshi built his castle at Fushima, south of Kyoto,
flourished
during this period. It was a period of interest in the
outside
world, the development of large urban centers, and the
rise of the
merchant and leisure classes. Ornate castle architecture
and
interiors adorned with painted screens embellished with
gold leaf
reflected daimyo power and wealth. Depictions of
the
"southern barbarians"--Europeans--were exotic and popular.
In 1577 Hideyoshi had seized Nagasaki, Japan's major
point of
contact with the outside world. He took control of the
various
trade associations and tried to regulate all overseas
activities.
Although China rebuffed his efforts to secure trade
concessions,
Hideyoshi succeeded in sending commercial missions to
present-day
Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. He was suspicious
of
Christianity, however, as potentially subversive to
daimyo
loyalties and he had some missionaries crucified.
Hideyoshi's major ambition was to conquer China, and in
1592,
with an army of 200,000 troops, he invaded Korea, then a
Chinese
vassal state. His armies quickly overran the peninsula
before
losing momentum in the face of a combined Korean-Chinese
force.
During peace talks, Hideyoshi demanded a division of
Korea, freetrade status, and a Chinese princess as consort for the
emperor.
The equality with China sought by Japan was rebuffed by
the
Chinese, and peace efforts ended. In 1597 a second
invasion was
begun, but it abruptly ended with Hideyoshi's death in
1598.
Data as of January 1994
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