History UsefulNotes / ToyotomiHideyoshi

When Nobunaga was slain, Hideyoshi was the one who inherited his ambition to reunite Japan and avenged his lord by defeating UsefulNotes/AkechiMitsuhide in Battle of Yamazaki. However, he could not become the official shogun due to his commoner origins, the best he could get was ''[[RegentForLife kampaku]]''. Regardless, Hideyoshi redistributed the land's incomes and applied several policies to stabilize them (one of them including the Sword Hunt, by seizing the blades of samurai so they can't cause trouble in times of peace again), but then made a fatal mistake to sate his own ambition by trying to invade Korea. The campaign was already failing before his death, and had to be stopped completely when Hideyoshi died in September 1598. However, one unintended outcome of the Korean Campaign was the weakening of the Ming Dynasty; the huge costs to the Ming in helping to defend Korea contributed to its fall less than 50 years after Hideyoshi's death.

When Nobunaga was slain, Hideyoshi was the one who inherited his ambition to reunite Japan and avenged his lord by defeating UsefulNotes/AkechiMitsuhide in Battle of Yamazaki. However, he could not become the official shogun due to his commoner origins, the best he could get was ''[[RegentForLife kampaku]]''. Regardless, Hideyoshi redistributed the land's incomes to the land and applied several policies to stabilize them (one of them including the Sword Hunt, by seizing the blades of samurai so they can't cause trouble in times of peace again), but then made a fatal mistake to sate his own ambition and attempting to strengthen his legacy and accomplishment by trying to invade Korea. The campaign was already failing before his death, and had to be stopped completely when Hideyoshi died (in September 1598). However, one unintended outcome of the Korean Campaign was the weakening of the Ming Dynasty; the huge costs to the Ming in helping to defend Korea contributed to its fall less than 50 years after Hideyoshi's death.

* '''''Empresa de China''''' (along with Spain and Portugal vs. China): A campaign that never left the drawing board, as well as little known but quite insane historical curiosity. Commerce between Japan and the Spanish and Portuguese territories was already there in the 1580s, but things got interesting when the Toyotomi regency scouted Spain as a potential ally, upon which admiral Konishi Yukinaga was sent to propose to team up against any common enemy, including China, Borneo and Siam. A cabal of Spanish and Portuguese higherups had been planning a possible conquest of China by kickstarting a local revolt, the same trick they had used against the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheAztecEmpire Aztecs]] and [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheIncaEmpire Inca]], and therefore Japanese help was greatly welcomed. However, the project was controversial in Spain about its legitimacy, and was abandoned in order to focus their naval resources on the English after the [[UsefulNotes/AngloSpanishWar15851604 Spanish Armada]].

* '''''Empresa de China''''' (along with Spain and Portugal vs. China): A campaign that never left the drawing board, as well as little known but quite insane historical curiosity. Commerce between Japan and the Spanish and Portuguese territories were already there in the 1580s, but things got interesting when the Toyotomi regency scouted Spain as a potential ally, upon which admiral Konishi Yukinaga was sent to propose to team up against any common enemy, including China, Borneo and Siam. A cabal of Spanish and Portuguese higherups had been planning a possible conquest of China by kickstarting a local revolt, the same trick they had used against the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheAztecEmpire Aztecs]] and [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheIncaEmpire Inca]], and therefore Japanese help was greatly welcomed. However, the project was controversial in Spain about its legitimacy, and was abandoned in order to focus their naval resources on the English after the [[UsefulNotes/AngloSpanishWar15851604 Spanish Armada]].

* '''Korea''' (vs. Korean/Chinese alliance): Hideyoshi never participated in this campaign directly, but he did order it. Four years after the failure of the previous, in a combination of ambition, desire to emulate Nobunaga's ideals to go beyond Japan to at least China, trying to ensure a strengthening to his legacy after unifying Japan, ensuring an era of peace after his Sword Hunt policy caused many Japanese soldiers to be out of job and the only thing they're good at are fighting (thus, risking rebellion and destroying the efforts he made to unify Japan) and most importantly, ''senility'', Hideyoshi declared that he's going to conquer China by himself. He first tried to ally with Korea, but he got blocked from entry when all Hideyoshi wanted was just to offer alliance, and when that failed, Hideyoshi just declared war anyway in 1592. He made both great progress and controversies (including the Mimizuka), but was repulsed, and in the process he almost caused a simultaneous conflict with Spain by whimsically demanding tribute from them to sustain the military effort. He launched a second campaign, but this one ended up as a complete failure for the fact that the Japanese soldiers under him were not experienced with naval battle, something that the Koreans excelled at (and bolstered with the leadership of Admiral Yi-Sun Shin). By 1598, Hideyoshi's age caught up to him and he died of sickness, and thus all the Japanese soldiers had to fall back. And thus, the second unifier's life came to an end, tragically with those supporting him feeling kind of disgusted with this one particular decision, which paved way for [[UsefulNotes/TokugawaIeyasu the third unifier]] to act...

* '''Korea''' (vs. Korean/Chinese alliance): Hideyoshi never participated in this campaign directly, but he did order them. In a combination of ambition, desire to emulate Nobunaga's ideals to go beyond Japan to at least China, trying to ensure a strengthening to his legacy after unifying Japan, ensuring an era of peace after his Sword Hunt policy caused many Japanese soldiers to be out of job and the only thing they're good at are fighting (thus, risking rebellion and destroying the efforts he made to unify Japan) and most importantly, ''senility'', Hideyoshi declared that he's going to conquer China. He got blocked from entry by Korea when all Hideyoshi wanted was just to offer alliance. When that failed, Hideyoshi just declared war anyway in 1592, and made both great progress and controversies (including the Mimizuka), and when that got repulsed, he launched a second one. This campaign ended up as a complete failure for the fact that the Japanese soldiers under him were not experienced with naval battle, something that the Koreans excelled at (and bolstered with the leadership of Admiral Yi-Sun Shin), and by 1598, Hideyoshi's age caught up to him and he died of sickness, and thus all the Japanese soldiers had to fall back. And thus, the second unifier's life came to an end, tragically with those supporting him feeling kind of disgusted with this one particular decision, which paved way for [[UsefulNotes/TokugawaIeyasu the third unifier]] to act...

* In ''LightNovel/TheAmbitionOfOdaNobuna'', Hideyoshi dies saving the main character's life at the very beginning of the series, leaving him to serve Oda Nobuna under the "Monkey" nickname.

** ''Sanadamaru'' (真田丸. 2016), by contrast, would attempt to portray a more multi-layered image of Hideyoshi (through Fumiyo Kohinata)--as someone who [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking might have genuinely earned his role at the top]] through innovative thinking, but [[TradeYourPassionForGlory whose elevated position meant]] he's occupied by far more [[TheChainsOfCommanding personal and political issues he's not wholly willing to address]]. The series both takes a more positive spin on his certain policy choices (ex. couching the Korean invasion as, at least initially, a well-thought out GenghisGambit), while nonetheless acknowledging he has definitely [[MoralEventHorizon crossed over certain lines]] out of pride or a faltering mind (ex. the fallout over Hidetsugu). This choice, to some extent, is likely to justify protagonist UsefulNotes/SanadaYukimura's UndyingLoyalty to the Toyotomi.

Hideyoshi is most known for his resourcefulness and his ability to manipulate events. Some historians to this day ''still'' argue that Mitsuhide's betrayal was secretly engineered by Hideyoshi. That being said, props should be given that he actually succeeded in unifying Japan and actually did good to his people's welfare. Too bad that his dynasty didn't last past two generations. It should be pointed out that Hideyoshi was also ruthless. He forced his heir-apparent Hidetsugu to commit suicide after an unsuccessful coup, but that apparently was not enough for Hideyoshi, who ordered Hidetsugu's entire family, including 31 women and children, executed. Moreover, his failure at the Korean Campaign was credited as one of the reasons why the Toyotomi dynasty did'nt last and it left a sour note to his legacy (not to mention the Mimizuka monument, as mentioned above). It is probably also why very few productions in the modern day ever touch that campaign in any fictional portrayal that features Hideyoshi, regardless of how he's portrayed, and only featuring the UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod. The Korean Campaign, nevertheless, has begun to become a period of interest for some nuanced fictional works[[note]]such as the American video game ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'' (which covers a more general history of the world), the 2014 {{Creator/NHK}} Taiga drama ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunshi_Kanbei Gunshi Kanbei]]'' (which portrays the affair as an entirely bad idea borne out of Hideyoshi's megalomania, which destabilized the Toyotomi ripe for Sekigahara), as well as the 2014 Korean war film ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Admiral:_Roaring_Currents The Admiral: Roaring Currents]]'' (about the heroics of Admiral Yi Sun-shin, who repelled Hideyoshi's navy) and the 2015 Korean drama ''{{Series/Jingbirok}}'', both understandably coming from a pro-Joseon/anti-Hideyoshi POV.[[/note]].

* While there are multiple instances of him being part of the {{Creator/NHK}} Taiga Dramas whenever the Azuchi-Momoyama period is covered, two series stand out:
** 1996's ''Hideyoshi''(秀吉). In the 1996 series, being the title character, ProtagonistCenteredMorality is clearly at play. To an extent, Hideyoshi's portrayal is designed to appeal and inspire 90's-era [[{{Salaryman}} salarymen]], by upholding Hideyoshi's rise from footsoldier to Taiko as the SelfMadeMan dream extraordinaire.
** 2014's ''Gunshi Kanbei'' (軍師官兵衛). In contrast, the series takes him from being a WorkingClassHero and SelfMadeMan to a FallenHero [[TheCaligula and capricious Taiko]], with both him and Kanbei (his strategist) realizing [[DeathbedConfession on his deathbed]] [[TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget how far they've strayed]] from their intentions once in power.
*** In both series, Naoto Takenaka[[note]]Mainly a J-Film/Drama actor, but is also the official dub actor for ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'''s incarnation of ComicBook/NickFury as portrayed by Creator/SamuelLJackson.[[/note]] plays him, and he has been celebrated in his turns that he is among the preferred ones to play Hideyoshi--even outside NHK series.

When Nobunaga was slain, Hideyoshi was the one who inherited his ambition to reunite Japan and avenged his lord by defeating UsefulNotes/AkechiMitsuhide in Battle of Yamazaki. However, he could not become the official shogun due to his commoner origins, the best he could get was ''[[RegentForLife kampaku]]''. Regardless, Hideyoshi redistributed the land's incomes to the land and applied several policies to stabilize them (one of them including the Sword Hunt, by seizing the blades of samurai so they can't cause trouble in times of peace again), but then made a fatal mistake to sate his own ambition and attempting to strengthen his legacy and accomplishment by trying to invade Korea. The campaign was already failing before his death, and had to be stopped completely when Hideyoshi died midway (in September 1598). However, one unintended outcome of the Korean Campaign was the weakening of the Ming Dynasty; the huge costs to the Ming in helping to defend Korea contributed to its fall less than 50 years after Hideyoshi's death.

A controversial topic in regards of the Korean Campaign and Hideyoshi's actions revolve around an order referred as the 'ear hunt'. In order to ensure discipline and his soldiers were fighting, Hideyoshi demanded that his soldiers brought proofs back to Japan in form of the heads of their enemies. His soldiers decided that it's too much of a hassle to bring their enemies' heads so they decided to just cut off the ears of the Korean people and use them as proofs. In his own megalomania, Hideyoshi then built a monument of those ears to celebrate on the campaign. This is a monument that still existed today, known as Mimizuka, and still became one of the main reasons Korean and Japanese people do not get along, especially when later Japanese governments took a defensive stance on Hideyoshi's controversial monument.

When Nobunaga was slain, Hideyoshi was the one who inherited his ambition to reunite Japan and avenged his lord by defeating UsefulNotes/AkechiMitsuhide in Battle of Yamazaki. However, he could not become the official shogun due to his commoner origins, the best he could get was ''[[RegentForLife kampaku]]''. Regardless, Hideyoshi redistributed the land's incomes to the land and applied several policies to stabilize them (one of them including the Sword Hunt, by seizing the blades of samurai so they can't cause trouble in times of peace again), but then made a fatal mistake to sate his own ambition and attempting to strengthen his legacy and accomplishment by trying to invade Korea. The campaign was already failing before his death, and had to be stopped completely when Hideyoshi died midway.

Hideyoshi is most known for his resourcefulness and his ability to manipulate events. Some historians to this day ''still'' argue that Mitsuhide's betrayal was secretly engineered by Hideyoshi. That being said, props should be given that he actually succeeded in unifying Japan and actually did good to his people's welfare. Too bad that his dynasty didn't last past two generations. It should be pointed out that Hideyoshi was also ruthless. He forced his heir-apparent Hidetsugu to commit suicide after an unsuccessful coup, but that apparently was not enough for Hideyoshi, who ordered Hidetsugu's entire family, including 31 women and children, executed. Moreover, his failure at the Korean Campaign was credited as one of the reasons why and it left a sour note to his legacy (not to mention the Mimizuka monument, as mentioned above). It is probably also why very few productions in the modern day ever touch that campaign in any fictional portrayal that features Hideyoshi, regardless of how he's portrayed, and only featuring the UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod. The Korean Campaign, nevertheless, has begun to become a period of interest for some nuanced fictional works[[note]]such as the American video game ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'' (which covers a more general history of the world), the 2014 {{Creator/NHK}} Taiga drama ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunshi_Kanbei Gunshi Kanbei]]'' (which portrays the affair as an entirely bad idea borne out of Hideyoshi's megalomania, which destabilized the Toyotomi ripe for Sekigahara), as well as the 2014 Korean war film ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Admiral:_Roaring_Currents The Admiral: Roaring Currents]]'' (about the heroics of Admiral Yi Sun-shin, who repelled Hideyoshi's navy) and the 2015 Korean drama ''{{Series/Jingbirok}}'', both understandably coming from a pro-Joseon/anti-Hideyoshi POV.[[/note]].

When Nobunaga was slain, Hideyoshi was the one who inherited his ambition to reunite Japan and avenged his lord by defeating UsefulNotes/AkechiMitsuhide in Battle of Yamazaki. However, he could not become the official shogun due to his commoner origins, the best he could get was ''[[RegentForLife kampaku]]''. Regardless, Hideyoshi redistributed the land's incomes to the land and applied several policies to stabilize them (one of them including the Sword Hunt, by seizing the blades of samurai so they can't cause trouble in times of peace again), but then made a fatal mistake to sate his own ambition and attempting to strengthen his legacy and accomplishment by trying to invade Korea. The campaign was already failing and had to be stopped completely as Hideyoshi died midway.

A controversial topic in regards of the Korean Campaign and Hideyoshi's actions revolve around an order referred as the 'ear hunt'. In order to ensure discipline and his soldiers were fighting, Hideyoshi demanded that his soldiers brought proofs back to Japan in form of the heads of their enemies. His soldiers decided that it's too much of a hassle to bring their enemies' heads so they decided to just cut off the ears of the Korean people and use them as proofs. In his own megalomania, Hideyoshi then built a monument of those ears to celebrate on the campaign. This is a monument that still existed today, known as Mimizuka, and still became one of the main reasons Korean and Japanese people do not get along, especially when latter Japanese government took a defensive stance on Hideyoshi's controversial monument.

Hideyoshi is most known for his resourcefulness and his ability to manipulate events. Some historians to this day ''still'' argue that Mitsuhide's betrayal was secretly engineered by Hideyoshi. That being said, props should be given that he actually succeeded in unifying Japan and actually did good to his people's welfare. Too bad that his dynasty didn't last past two generations. It should be pointed out that Hideyoshi was also ruthless. He forced his heir-apparent Hidetsugu to commit suicide after an unsuccessful coup, but that apparently was not enough for Hideyoshi, who ordered Hidetsugu's entire family, including 31 women and children, executed. Moreover, his failure at the Korean Campaign was credited as one of the reasons why and it left a sour note to his legacy (not to mention the Mimizuka monument, as mentioned above). It is probably also why very few productions in the modern day ever touches that Campaign in any fictional portrayal that features Hideyoshi, regardless of how he's portrayed, and only featuring the UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod. The Korean Campaign, nevertheless, has begun to become a period of interest for some nuanced fictional works[[note]]such as the American video game ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'' (which covers a more general history of the world), the 2014 {{Creator/NHK}} Taiga drama ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunshi_Kanbei Gunshi Kanbei]]'' (which portrays the affair as an entirely bad idea borne out of Hideyoshi's megalomania, which destabilized the Toyotomi ripe for Sekigahara), as well as the 2014 Korean war film ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Admiral:_Roaring_Currents The Admiral: Roaring Currents]]'' (about the heroics of Admiral Yi Sun-shin, who repelled Hideyoshi's navy) and the 2015 Korean drama ''{{Series/Jingbirok}}'', both understandably coming from a pro-Joseon/anti-Hideyoshi POV.[[/note]].

His nickname by Oda Nobunaga was 'monkey' and 'bald-rat', though nobody except Nobunaga would dare call him that to his face. Usual portrayal would depict him being a wannabe schemer, though positive portrayals of him do exist, being an eager and hard-working man that earns his peers via hard work (close enough of being a Shonen hero that defies HardWorkHardlyWorks), that could seep into being a bumbling man as his vices. The middle-ground portrayal of him tends to be a FallenHero type of character, when he was younger, he was an idealistic hero, but at one point of time (usually after his unification of Japan or even as early as Nobunaga's death or another time), he was faced with harsh realities that made him do a lot of morally questionable things and became much more ruthless, no longer the ideal hero he was before. He's also included in one issue of Website/BadassOfTheWeek.

The second of the unifying warlords of UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} during the UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod and a prime example of RagsToRiches. He was born Kinoshita Tōkichirō, and his early life remains somewhat obscure. His parents apparently wanted him to become a priest, but he ran away from the temple and became a soldier instead. In 1558, he became the sandal-bearer of UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga. He was eventually drafted into Nobunaga's army, changed his name to Hashiba Hideyoshi, and used his resourcefulness to become a valuable asset. Hideyoshi proved to be very competent that he rose through Nobunaga's ranks, showcasing the effect of Nobunaga valuing meritocracy.

* '''Shizugatake''' (vs. Shibata Katsuie): The bad news for Hideyoshi was that while a lot of Nobunaga's descendants (and his main heir) were killed by Mitsuhide earlier, some still survived, so it became a scramble on who would succeed Nobunaga and whoever supported this heir would basically control the remnants of the Oda clan. Hideyoshi supported the 3 year old Nobuhide, but a strong opposition came from one of his war companions under the Oda, namely Shibata Katsuie, who supported Oda Nobutaka. Despite Oda's other son Nobukatsu eventually coming to support Hideyoshi, Katsuie also had the support of Nobunaga's sister Oichi who re-married with him, and another veteran general Maeda Toshiie. A clash was inevitable, but in the end, Hideyoshi was the one prevailing thanks to the efforts of seven generals whom he dubbed 'Seven Spears of Shizugatake', although only two of them gained notoriety due to their participation at Sekigahara later: Fukushima Masanori and Katou Kiyomasa. Hideyoshi managed to convince Toshiie to turn over for him, but after his inevitable defeat, Katsuie chose to commit a honorable seppuku while urging Oichi to escape, but Oichi has had enough of tragedies in her life (especially after the death of her first husband Azai Nagamasa), so chose to commit seppuku too, but she let her daughters escape. Her eldest one, Yodo/Chacha, would end up being taken as a consort for Hideyoshi (who already had a legal wife named Nene long since he started his career).

* '''Yamazaki''' (vs. UsefulNotes/AkechiMitsuhide): While the methods were not exactly known, Hideyoshi commanded his battalion to blitz through from Takamatsu to the capital that he reached Mt. Tennou at the Yamazaki area where the army of the traitorous Mitsuhide ''all within 13 days after Nobunaga's death''. The Akechi army was completely unprepared with Hideyoshi's sudden arrival. Hideyoshi then wasted no time to completely crush the Akechi army. He didn't get to deliver the personal coup de grace to Mitsuhide, though, as Mitsuhide would retreat and not being seen again, with the most popular info being that he got killed by peasants for his betrayal. Not that it'll be a big deal for Hideyoshi, at least with this battle, he has become the official avenger of Nobunaga. So with that being said, he should be the one to inherit his conquest program... right?