A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower (24 page)

This policy of fief redistribution, used by Nobunaga before him, was later to become a hallmark of Tokugawa policy too. It had a two-fold benefit. It not only strategically placed loyal vassals between less loyal ones, but in the case of relocation of less loyal vassals it also separated them from the bulk of the people who formed their traditional power-base.

Hideyoshi’s practice of keeping the families of
daimy
as hostages at his headquarters in Momoyama (near Ky
to) also helped to some extent to quell any opposition – though family ties were clearly not always an important consideration for some warlords.

Another of Hideyoshi’s policies to reduce threat – again started by Nobunaga – was his confiscation of peasant weapons nationwide, in the so-called ‘Sword Hunt’ (
Katanagari
) of 1588.
⁶⁴
It was a move intended to reduce the threat of peasant uprising and the use of peasant militia by rival warlords. He was no doubt mindful of his own rise to military power from peasant origins.

The Sword Hunt also had the effect of separating peasant and warrior in terms of social class. This separation was further enforced by ‘classfreezing’ regulations that Hideyoshi issued in 1591.
⁶⁵
Among other things these prevented peasants from leaving their fields to take up any other profession, and obliged samurai to live in the castle-towns that became a feature of this age. He also further revived and extended the practice of collective responsibility by threatening punishments on entire villages and towns for the wrongdoings of individuals. These stern measures of class separation and collective responsibility were clearly aimed at preventing instability and threat.

Hideyoshi continued the land surveys commenced by Nobunaga, like-wise the standardisation of measures, and he carried out a population census in 1590. The following year of 1591 the provinces in the far north finally came under his control.

Thanks to Hideyoshi’s various victories and policies, and thanks to the legacy of Nobunaga’s achievements, by the early 1590s the re-unification of the country was more or less complete. It still needed, of course, to be consolidated, and preferably under Hideyoshi himself. There had to be constant vigilance against any threat to this aim.

One suspicion Hideyoshi had was about Christian activity. Nobunaga had been tolerant of Christians because they were useful in his campaign against Buddhists. At first Hideyoshi too was tolerant. However, immediately following his Ky
sh
campaign, when he came into close contact with Christians, he denounced Christianity in the Edict of Expulsion of 1587. He did not actually enforce this edict for some years, and it was seen as more of a warning. However, his anti-Christian attitude hardened further with the arrival of Franciscans in 1593, which ended the Jesuit monopoly and led to considerable sectarian squabbling and politicking. Then in 1597, possibly suspecting missionaries to be the advance guard of an invasion, Hideyoshi crucified 26 Christians, including nine Europeans.
⁶⁶
The Incident of the 26 Martyrs was the first time any Europeans had been put to death in Japan for professing Christianity.

In his later years, especially after around 1590, Hideyoshi’s personality seems to have changed. His suspicions about any possible threat developed into virtual paranoia. He was convinced his young nephew Hidetsugu (1568–95) was plotting against him, and he forced him to commit suicide. To be on the safe side he also executed Hidetsugu’s wife and three young children, as well as his retainers. To send a message to would-be conspirators Hidetsugu’s head was put on public display.

In some ways Hideyoshi became more like his former lord Nobunaga. He started to show almost Nobunaga-like cruelty, and a Nobunaga-like sense of personal grandeur. Nothing was allowed to spoil his world, and messengers who brought him bad news risked being sawn in half.
⁶⁷
His great master of the tea ceremony, Sen no Riky
(1522–91), who had also served Nobunaga and was hardly young and threatening, somehow fell foul of Hideyoshi, and was another obliged to kill himself.

Hideyoshi’s world was not big enough for him, and he envisaged the conquest of China to establish a pan-Asian empire. As the first phase of this grand scheme his forces invaded Korea in 1592, but were driven back by combined Korean and Chinese forces. His campaign had not been helped by his own failure to set foot in the field. He tried again in 1597, but this campaign too was abandoned, for Hideyoshi died from illness in September 1598.

Three years prior to his death, with a view to ensuring continuity of Toyotomi hegemony Hideyoshi had established a council of five of Japan’s greatest
daimy
, the Five Great Elders. One of these was Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of the great survivors of Japanese history.

Ieyasu’s career is outlined in Part Three. It can be noted here that in 1584 he had unsuccessfully challenged Hideyoshi, and the following year had acknowledged Hideyoshi as his overlord. Though they were allies in a number of campaigns, Hideyoshi was never quite sure of Ieyasu’s loyalties. In 1590 he strategically relocated him from his traditional central territory near Shizuoka to more distant territory in the Kant
region. Hideyoshi probably made an error of judgement in this move, not the least because Ieyasu’s new territory, at 2.5 million
koku
,
⁶⁸
was bigger than that of any other
daimy
and even bigger than Hideyoshi’s own personal holdings. By 1598 Ieyasu had strengthened his position to the point where he was considered by many
daimy
to be their overlord. In fact, he had no fewer than 38
daimy
among his vassals.