Sengoku Clan Introduction: Toyotomi news

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, born in a humble farming family, who’s father served amongst the Oda clan. His father, Yaemon, died when Hideyoshi (then called Tokichiro, and without a surname) was young. Seeking military aspirations of his own, he went on to serve as a small time warrior to a minor retainer of the Imagawa clan, a sworn enemy of Oda, before eventually returning to Owari to serve the Oda clan.

According to the folk legends, one day when Oda Nobunaga's army was marching across a forest, a giant monkey suddenly jumped down from the tree and stood in front of Lord Nobunaga and his samurai. Somehow impressed by his courage, Nobunaga allowed the monkey to join the Oda clan and become his servant. As it turns out, this giant monkey is no other than the man who would become the Kanpaku of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Starting as a low-ranked sandal bearer, Hideyoshi wasn't really a man who the other Oda retainers would respect. However, Oda would often counsel with those close around him, and held loyalty as the upmost important trait in people. It was through this completely loyal service that Toyotomi gained Oda’s respect, and gradually promoted to higher ranks. Toyotomi a played a large part in the success of capturing Mino province from Saito Tatsuoki. He was also luckily around Oda Nobunaga when Oda marched his army into Kyoto and installed Ashikaga Yoshiaki into the seat of the Shogun, and perhaps impressed with his loyal and humble diligence, and it was during this time that Toyotomi made Oda aware of Akechi Mitsuhide's mistrust. Toyotomi also then played a pivotal role against the Asakura clan, which was one of the first proving grounds of his military prowess. After this battle, Toyotomi was put in charge of defending the lands around the Asai and Asakura, whilst Oda went to fight Takeda. After the death of Takeda Shingen, Oda came back and then defeated the Asai and Asakura clans. Toyotomi was then rewarded with the control of the Asai region, Omi province, and officially became a Daimyo within the Oda clan. Granting fiefs to the samurai under his command, he also recruited a group of men who would later would become important figures within his own clan. After becoming a Daimyo, Toyotomi changed his surname to Hashiba, named after two of Oda’s generals. As Daimyo, Hashiba Hideyoshi would then go on to support Oda against the successful destruction of the Ikko Ikki and the Takeda clan.

In 1581, Hideyoshi was ordered to engage the Mori clan. Hideyoshi proved himself to be a capable military leader in various fights against Mori, especially in besieging enemy strongholds and turning other Daimyo’s to change alliances. He even managed to capture the massive Himeji castle without a single bullet being fired, and then turned it into his base castle. After much success, Oda was confident that Toyotomi could defeat Mori, and he started planning the invasion of Shikoku. Toyotomi would then ask for reinforcements for what might have been a final showdown vs the Mori clan. Oda sent his best men, and ordered Akechi Mitsuhide to assist Toyotomi, and Oda would also follow. Unfortunately, Akechi Mitsudhide betrayed Oda Nobunaga, and killed him at the Honno-ji incident. On hearing this news, Hideyoshi marched his army to Kyoto within just just a few days, which was about 120 miles away from Takamatsu, to avenge Lord Nobunaga. Akechi Mitsuhide was caught off guard by Hideyoshi's move, expecting that Toyotomi would lose against the Mori in the battle at Takamatsu castle, and with only 10,000 men against Hideyoshi's 20,000, Akechi's coup was soon brought to an end. In the end, it was quite simple for Hideyoshi to call a truce with the Mori, which gave him the opportunity to avenge his master so quickly.

The feat of avenging Nobunaga had brought Hideyoshi to a high ground among some of the senior vassals of the Oda clan, but not all of them agreed or support Hideyoshi. With the killing of Nobunaga's main heir, the Oda family also were in disagreement of who should be the heir and it left a power vacuum between Oda Nobukatsu, Oda Nobutaka and Oda Hidenobu. Hideyoshi opted to support Oda's youngest son, Oda Hidenobu, who was just an infant. Eventually this lead to Shibata Katsuie, an Oda retainer to support Oda Nobutaka. They joined forces and fought against Oda Nobukatsu, who joined withToyotomi at the Battle of Shizugatake. Toyotomi and Oda Nobukatsu however won the battle. After this, Oda Nobukatsu would turn against Hideyoshi and join forces with Tokugawa, which lead to battle the next year at Komaki and Nagakute. Although no decisive victor came out, Hideyoshi and Tokugawa agreed to peace. Nobukatsu would also submit to Toyotomi, (but betrayed the clan later on and joined Tokugawa during the battle of Sekigahara). Leading the forces of the former Oda clan, he would consolidate his power over former Oda regions, eventually conquering the rest of Japan, invading Shikoku and deafeating the Chosokabe, sending an enormous force of strength against the Hojo clan with resulted in an almost instant surrender, and a massive invasion of Kyushu vs the Shimazu. In 1586, the Emperor named Hideyoshi the Kanpaku (Imperial Regent), and gave him the surname "Toyotomi". Hideyoshi and his family, now the "Toyotomi clan", had finally become the real ruler of all Japan. Tokugawa would be given the Kanto plains by Hideyoshi, in order to appease his former rival. Little did Hideyoshi know however, that this would give Tokugawa the ability and distance to quietly build up his own forces.

With Japan united, Hideyoshi began to put a greater ambition into practice. In the invasions of Korea, the Japanese generals swiftly took the cities of the Joseon dynasty including its capital, forcing the Korean King to call for help from the Ming Dynasty. Even with the Chinese reinforcements, the combined forces weren't able to retake all the lost territories. In 1598, however, Toyotomi died in Kyoto, and the invasion eventually came to a close. In the end, Hideyoshi was unfortunately unable to fulfil his goal.

Due to internal strife and problems, Toyotomi previously has his eldest heir ordered to commit Seppuku, which meant the heir of the Toyotomi dynasty, Toyotomi Hideyori, was only 5 years old when he became the successor of the clan. This lead to Toyotomi creating a council of five elders (local and loyal lords to Hideyoshi) to oversea the clan until Hideyori became of age. Unfortunately, one of the members, Tokugawa Ieyasu saw this as his moment, and lead a rebellion to claim the shogunate for himself and went to battle against the other four. This included the most loyal to Toyotomi, Ishida Mitsunari, who lead the campaign effort against Tokugawa. This eventually lead to a huge alliance of western forces (supporting Tokugawa), battling an alliance of Eastern forces (supporting Toyotomi) at the famous Battle of Sekigahara. And with Ishida Mitsunari executed, the power had eventually fallen into Ieyasu's hands and he became the leader of Japan. Toyotomi Hideyori was then married to Tokugawa's granddaughter to prevent future uprising.

In later life, Hideyori lived in Osaka castle, and slowly would be seen as the rightful ruler of Japan to some. Tokugawa also never completely relied on him not becoming a threat, and rumours were circulating that Hideyori was planning an uprising, which lead to Tokugawa demanding Hideyori leave Osaka castle. After refusing, Tokugawa launched an attack and besieged Osaka Castle. Hideyori was also able to amass a huge army to defend inside the walls of Osaka, and initially repelled Tokugawa's attack. However, Tokugawa's long range Dutch cannons proved too much, and a truce was agreed. Tokugawa then filled Osaka castle with stockades and filled in the moats, before eventually re-attacking the caste and burning it to the ground. Realizing that there is no hope, Hideyori and his mother committed seppuku, Tokugawa slayed Hideyori's son and family, and the legendary clan which was started by a peasant was tragically destroyed.

According to some sources, it is also possible that Hideyori had escaped the castle in secret , as his body was never actually found and rumours amongst some Jesuits was that he was assisted off Japan. It's plausible, that he was assisted perhaps by the Portugese or Spanish, as they had provided Toyotomi's alliance (despite Hideyoshi's previous aggressions towards Christians) with weapons and resources to assist in the Siege of Osaka (with the British and Dutch providing weapons and cannons to the Tokugawa side). It seems there was much more at play here to the future of Japan than meets the eye, and perhaps has some relevance to the Spanish/Portugese and British/Dutch empirical desires. The Spanish and Portugese after all, would have very much liked to have seen Tokugawa fail, due to his eventual hostility towards Christian missionaries and preferences in dealing with the Dutch at Hirado. If this was the plan however, to perhaps have Hideyori return one day, it was put into a swift close. Tokugawa would eventually cut Japan off from the rest of the world, forbid any overseas travel or employment on foreign ships, and all trade was conducted solely through the Dutch port at Hirada. Internal power consolidation and new rules (such as only one castle allowed per clan) meant any competing Daimyo would completely lose their influence and power or ability to uprise.

All information here is subject to change. This is an alpha preview and may not represent the final game version, due to game re-balancing, new ideas or otherwise.