Azuchi-Momoyama period
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Gold tea-room at Fushimi (Momoyama) Castle, Kyoto |
The came at the end of the
Warring States Period in
Japan, when the political unification that preceded the establishment of the
Tokugawa shogunate took place. It spans the years from approximately
1568 to
1600, during which time
Oda Nobunaga and his successor,
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, imposed order upon the chaos that had pervaded since the collapse of the
Ashikaga Shogunate. The name of this period is taken from Nobunaga's castle,
Azuchi Castle, in the present-day town of
Azuchi,
Shiga Prefecture and Hideyoshi's castle,
Momoyama Castle (also known as
Fushimi Castle), in
Kyoto.
In broad terms, this period begins with Nobunaga's entry into Kyoto in 1568, when he led his army to the imperial capital in order to install
Ashikaga Yoshiaki as the 15th, and ultimately final, shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate, and lasts until the coming to power of
Tokugawa Ieyasu after his victory over supporters of the Toyotomi clan at the
Battle of Sekigahara in
1600.
During the last half of the 16th century, a number different
daimyo became strong enough either to manipulate the Muromachi
bakufu to their own advantage or to overthrow it altogether. One attempt to overthrow the
bakufu was made in 1560 by
Imagawa Yoshimoto, whose march towards the capital came to an ignominious end at the hands of
Oda Nobunaga in the
Battle of Okehazama. In 1565, an alliance of the
Matsunaga and Miyoshi clans attempted a coup by assassinating
Ashikaga Yoshiteru, the 13th Ashikaga shogun. Internal squabbling, however, prevented them from acting swiftly to legitimatize their claim to power, and it was not until 1568 that they managed to install Yoshiteru's cousin,
Ashikaga Yoshihide, as the next Shogun. Failure to enter Kyoto and gain recognition from the imperial court, however, had left the succession in doubt, and a group of
bakufu retainers led by
Hosokawa Fujitaka negotiated with Nobunaga to gain support for Yoshiteru's younger brother,
Yoshiaki.
Nobunaga, who had prepared over a period of years for just such an opportunity by establishing an alliance with the Azai in northern Omi and then conquering the neighboring province of Mino, now marched toward Kyoto. After routing the Rokkaku clan in southern Omi, Nobunaga forced the Matsunaga to capitulate and the Miyoshi to withdraw to Settsu. He then entered the capital, where he successfully gained recognition from the
emperor for Yoshiaki, who became the 15th Ashikaga shogun.
Nobunaga had no intention, however, of serving the Muromachi
bakufu, and instead now turned his attention to tightening his grip on the Kinki region. Resistance in the form of rival daimyo, intransigent Buddhist monks, and hostile merchants was eliminated swiftly and mercilessly, and Nobunaga quickly gained a reputation as a ruthless, unrelenting adversary. In support of his political and military moves, he instituted economic reform, removing barriers to commerce by invalidating traditional monopolies held by shrines and guilds and promoting initiative by instituting free markets know as
rakuichi-rakuza.
By
1573 he had destroyed the alliance of Asakura and Azai clans that threatened his northern flank, obliterated the militant
Tendai Buddhists monastic center at
Mount Hiei near Kyoto, and also had managed to avoid a potentially debilitating confrontation with
Takeda Shingen, who had suddenly taken ill and died just as his army was on the verge of defeating the Tokugawa and invading Oda's domain on its way to Kyoto.
Even after Shingen's death, there remained several daimyo powerful enough to resist Nobunaga, but none were situated close enough to Kyoto to pose a threat politically, and it appeared that unification under the Oda banner was a matter of time.
During the period from 1576 to 1579, Nobunaga constructed on the shore of
Lake Biwa at
Azuchi (in present-day
Shiga Prefecture)
Azuchi Castle, a magnificent seven-story castle that was intended to serve not simply as an impregnable military fortification but also as a sumptuous residence that would stand as a symbol of unification.
Having secured his grip on the Kinai region, Nobugana was now powerful enough to assign his generals the task of subjugating the outlying provinces.
Shibata Katsuie was given the task of conquering the
Uesugi clan in Ettchu,
Takigawa Kazumasa confronted the Takeda in Kai, and
Hashiba Hideyoshi was given the formidable task of facing the Mori in the Chugoku region of western Honshu.
In 1582, after a protracted campaign, Hideyoshi requested Nobunaga's help in overcoming tenacious resistance. Nobunaga, making a stop-over in Kyoto on his way west with only a small contingent of guards, was attacked and killed by one of his own disaffected generals,
Akechi Mitsuhide.
What followed was a scramble by the most powerful of Nobunaga's retainers to avenge their lord's death and thereby establish a dominant position in negotiations over the forthcoming realignment of the Oda clan. The situation became even more urgent when it was learned that Nobunaga's oldest son and heir, Nobutada, had also been killed, leaving the Oda clan with no clear successor.
Quickly negotiating a truce with the Mori before they could learn of Nobunaga's death, Hideyoshi now took his troops on a forced march toward his adversary, whom he defeated at the
Battle of Yamazaki, less than two weeks later.
Although a commoner who had risen through the ranks from foot soldier, Hideyoshi was now in position to challenge even the most senior of the Oda clan's hereditary retainers, and proposed that Nobutada's infant son, Sanposhi (later, Hidenobu), be named heir rather than Nobunaga's adult third son, Nobutaka, whose cause had been championed by
Shibata Katsuie. Having gained the support of other senior retainers, including Niwa Nagahide and Ikeda Itsuoki, Sanposhi was named heir and Hideyoshi appointed co-guardian.
Continued political intrigue, however, eventually led to open confrontation. After defeating Shibata at the
Battle of Shizugatake in 1583 and enduring a costly but ultimately advantageous stalemate with Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battles of
Komaki and
Nagakute in 1584, Hideyoshi managed to settle the question of succession for once and all, to take complete control of Kyoto, and to become the undisputed ruler of the former Oda domains. As a commoner, Hideyoshi was ineligible for the title of
Seii Taishogun, but was adopted by the
Fujiwara family, given the surname Toyotomi, and granted the title
Kanpaku in 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 carried the war of unification to
Shikoku and
Kyushu. In
1590, at the head of an army of 200,000, Hideyoshi defeated the Hōjō, his last formidable rival in eastern
Honshu. The remaining daimyo soon capitulated, and the military reunification of Japan was complete.
With all of Japan now under Hideyoshi's control, a new structure for national government was configured. The country was unified under a single leader, but the day-to-day governance of the people remained decentralized. The basis of power was distribution of territory as measured by rice production in units of
koku. In 1598, a national survey was instituted and assessed the national rice production at 18.5 million koku, 2 million of which was controlled directly by Hideyoshi himself. In contrast,
Tokugawa Ieyasu, whom Hideyoshi had transferred to the Kanto region, held 2.5 million koku.
A number of other administrative innovations were instituted to encourage commerce and stabilize society. In order to facilitate transportation, toll booths and other checkpoints along roads were largely eliminated as were unnecessary military strongholds. Measures that effectively froze class distinctions were instituted, including the requirement that different classes live separately in different areas of a town and a prohibition on the carrying or the owning of weapons by farmers.
Hideyoshi sought to secure his position by rearranging the holdings of the daimyo to his advantage. In particular, he reassigned the Tokugawa family to the Kanto region, far from the capitol, and surrounded their new territory with more trusted vassals. He also adopted a hostage system in which the wives and heirs of daimyo resided at his castle town in
Osaka.
He also attempted to provide for an orderly succession by taking the title Taiko, or "retired Kanpaku," in
1591 and turning the regency over to his nephew and adopted son
Toyotomi Hideyori. Only later did he attempt to formalize the balance of power by establishing administrative bodies. These included the
Council of Five Regents, who were sworn to keep peace and support the
Toyotomi, the five-member Board of House Administrators, who handled routine policy and administrative matters, and the three-member Board of Mediators, who were charged with keeping peace between the first two boards.
Hideyoshi's last major ambition was to conquer
China, and in
1592 he sent an army of 200,000 to invade
Korea, which was then a flourishing kingdom that enjoyed an alliance with China. During this
Seven-Year War, the invaders quickly overran the peninsula but lost momentum in the face of a combined Korean-Chinese force and crushing naval defeats at the hand of Admiral
Yi Sun-sin. During peace talks, Hideyoshi demanded a division of Korea, free-trade status, and a Chinese princess as consort for the emperor. The Chinese saw no reason, however, to treat the invaders as equals, and peace efforts reached an impasse. A second invasion was begun in
1597, but terminated abruptly with Hideyoshi's death the following year
1598.
Hideyoshi had on his deathbed appointed a group of the most powerful lords in Japan"Tokugawa, Maeda, Ukita, Uesugi, Mori"to govern as the
Council of Five Regents until his infant son, Hideyori, came of age. An uneasy peace lasted until the death of Maeda Toshiie in 1599. Thereafter, Ishida Mitsunari accused Ieyasu of disloyalty to the Toyotomi name, precipitating a crisis that led to the Battle of Sekigahara. Generally regarded as the last major conflict of the Azuchi-Momoyama period and
sengoku-jidai, Ieyasu's victory at Sekigahara marked the end of the Toyotomi reign. Three years later, Ieyasu received the title
Seii Taishogun, and established the
Edo bakufu, which lasted until the
Meiji Restoration in 1868.
The Momoyama period was a period of interest in the outside world, which also saw the development of large urban centers and the rise of the merchant class. The ornate castle architecture and interiors adorned with painted screens embellished with gold leaf were a reflection of a daimyo's power but also exhibited a new aesthetic sense that marked a clear departure from the somber monotones favored during the Muromachi period. A specific genre that emerged at this time was called the
Namban style"exotic depictions of European priests, traders, and other
"southern barbarians."The art of the tea ceremony also flourished at this time, and both Nobunaga and Hideyoshi lavished time and money on this pastime, collecting tea bowls, caddies, and other implements, sponsoring lavish social events, and patronizing acclaimed masters such as
Sen no Rikyū.
Hideyoshi had occupied
Nagasaki in 1587, and thereafter sought to take control of international trade and to regulate the trade associations that had contact with the outside world through this port. Although China rebuffed his efforts to secure trade concessions, Hideyoshi commercial missions called to present-day Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand in
Red seal ships were successful. He was also suspicious of
Christianity in Japan, which he saw as potentially subversive and some missionaries were crucified by his regime.
*1568: Nobunaga enters Kyoto, marking the beginning of the Azuchi-Momoyama period
*1573: Nobunaga overthrows the Muromachi bakufu and exerts control over central Japan
*1575: Nobunaga defeats the Takeda clan the
Battle of Nagashino*1582: Nobunaga is assassinated by Akechi Mitsuhide, who is then defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi at the
Battle of Yamazaki*1584: Hideyoshi fights Tokugawa Ieyasu to a standstill at the Battles of
Komaki and
Nagakute *1590: Hideyoshi defeats the Hōjō, effectively unifying Japan
*1592: Hideyoshi invades Korea
*1598: Hideyoshi dies
*1600: Ieyasu is victorious at the
Battle of Sekigahara, marking the end of the Azuchi-Momoyama period
