Toyotomi Hideyoshi 1537-1598

From lowly foot soldier he rose to control the state and assume the mantle of Nobunaga.

Representative Sengoku warrior, employed from young age by Nobunaga. In 1561, he took the name Kinoshita Tokichiro. In 1573, he was awarded the domains seized from the Azai family, valued at 180,000 koku, and he changed his name again, to Hashiba. He became master of Nagahama Castle in Omi, and encouraged economic development in the region. When Nobunaga took his unification struggles to the west, Hideyshi too fought fiercely in many places.

Nobunaga took his own life at the Honno-ji Incident, whereupon many rivals appeared to assume his mantle, but it was Hideyoshi who continued his work of unification. He took the title Kubo, and conducted the 'Kubo's Cadaster' (or land survey) to establish ownership and restore legality. This gave him great political weight. He disarmed non-warriors in a policy known as the 'separation of farmers and the military', and conducted a 'sword hunt' to ensure his surplus weaponry was collected. This effected a division in social structure. Hideyoshi also encouraged the minting of coin, and he abolished highway barriers, stimulating the movement of goods and instituting free markets to undermine the vested interests of guilds.

On two occasions, in 1592 and '97, he launched vainglorious and ill-conceived ventures into Korea. They brought no military advantage, but devastated Korea. They contributed to the final loss of Toyotomi authority. In his last years, Hideyoshi named his young son, Hideyori, as his successor. He died at Fushimi Castle.

                                                Oda Nobunaga 1534-1582

A soldier of fortune who aimed at unification of the realm by use of superlative military tactics.

A representative daimyo of the Sengoku period. After the sudden death of his father in 1560, he was left dangerously exposed, but his victory over Imagawa Yoshimoto at the Battle of Okehazama propelled him strongly onto the stage. In 1567 he quelled the neighbouring state of Mino and established his base there, calling it Gifu Castle. The following year he brought Ashikaga Yoshiaki onto his side and marched on Kyoto. Nobunaga had Yoshiaki declared shogun, reviving the authority of the Muromachi (or Ashikaga) shogunate while also allowing him to take real control of the Kinki area (the central administrative and financial hinterlands of Kyoto and Osaka) himself. Thereafter, he made able use of musketry - still new in warfare - and successively overthrew rival daimyo and independent religious fiefdoms. His hegemony grew and grew.

In 1576, he built Azuchi Castle in the state of Omi, and pacified the eastern provinces, long with the Kaga region, Kai and Mino, while also suppressing religious uprisings. In the 6th lunar month of 1582, while lodging at the temple of Honn�Eji in Kyoto, he was overwhelmed the forces of his subordinate, Akechi Mitsuhide, and took his life at 49 years of age.

The secret of Nobunaga's army lay in its mobility. He relied on local samurai as well as established generals, and armed them all with muskets and pikes. He made the first fully professional fighting body.

Nobunaga also fixed land ownership and carried out surveys and cadasters. He established the principle of the open markets, and abolished guilds. After his death, many of these policies were continued under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and they came to form the bases of the early modern unified Japanese state.

Nobunaga was opposed to the religious authorities wielding secular power, and he unceremoniously burned any temple that resisted him, massacring countless monks and lay believers. But he was generous towards the newly arrived Christian missionaries, and allowed them to build seminaries and churches. Not a few daimyo had become Christian, and this stance allowed Nobunaga to pressurise them while at the same time marginalising the power of the Buddhist clergy.

Nobunaga was an enthusiast for tea. Thanks to this he was able to associate with the fabulously wealthy merchant elite of Sakai. He gave tea vessels to his retainers as gifts, and allowed privileges to the tea industry. This allowed him to absorb the authority of the merchant class and also keep the warrior clans under his control.

                                            Ieyasu Tokugawa, 1542–1616

Through hard work and endurance he gained control of the entire realm and ended the endemic state of war.

Born as heir to Matsudaira Hirotada, lord of Okazaki Castle in the state of Mikawa, at the age of 6 he was sent as hostage, first to Oda Nobuhide in Owari, and then to Imagawa Yoshimoto in Suruga. At the decisive battle of Okehazama, Yoshimoto was destroyed by Nobunaga allowing Ieyasu finally to escape from a life of confinement. He was then 19. Two years later he formed an alliance with Nobunaga and pacified Mikawa. In 1568, he allied himself with Takeda Shingen and invaded the Imagawa lands of Suruga and Totomi.

As a follower of Nobunaga, Ieyasu was involved in many battles. He later fought against Hideyoshi, but then allied with him, and became a pillar of the Toyotomi regime. He mediated with the Date, Hojo and other Eastern daimyo who would not accept Hideyoshi's sway. Once Hideyoshi had largely unified the realm, Ieyasu moved to the Kanto region, but continued to be as a vital element in the Toyotomi powerbase.

In 1598, Hideyoshi died, and Ieyasu became foremost member of the five-man committee set up to protect Hideyoshi's young son Hideyori. But he had his eye on supreme power. In 1600, he broke all resistance to himself at the Battle of Sekigahara - the greatest encounter of the whole Sengoku period - defeating Ishida Mitsunari's forces, and seizing outright victory. In 1603, he was created shogun, and established his capital in Edo. Two years later, he resigned in favour of his son, Hidetada, and went to live in retirement in Sunpu, although he still retained much power and influence. He consorted with wealthy merchants, monks, scholars and foreign people, manipulating everything to his own family ends. He devised a system for ruling the realm in a unified manner, issuing policies on external relations, economics and trade.

1614-15 saw the summer and winter campaigns against Osaka Castle, which finally obliterated the Toyotomi line. Ieyasu had embedded a shogunate which was to endure for 15 generations and over 260 years.