The History of~Japan (Part 4: Sengoku Jidai)

Japan; the mystical land of "The Rising Sun". Behind the facade of the Megalopolis that is Tokyo, lies a land stained in blood of some of the world's mightiest warriors; the Samurai. A land that has a history of military rulers that at times ruled with an iron hand.

This is Part 5 of this 9-Part wiki page series. In this page we will talk about Japan's Warring Period; the Sengoku Jidai, the pivotal battles, and how Europe landed on this previously mysterious country, and how their firearms and Christianity would influence these dangerous times for Japan.

## Forward

Just to let everybody know before we begin. This is a brief oversimplified version of the Sengoku Jidai. If you want to know about this period in more detail, then check out my Sengoku Jidai wiki page series (click here to read about part 1).

## The Sengoku Jidai

### Onin War

The Sengoku Jidai officially started with the Onin War where the Hosokawa and the Yamana clans were warring against the declining power of the Ashikaga Shogunate. The war would last for 10 years and over 250,000 Samurai lost their lives in the conflict, eventhough the war would end in 1477, but it would kick start a series of conflicts that would last for over a century as the samurai lords in Japan would fight for supremacy. Rebellions would take place in 1488 and 1493. Then, members of the Hosokawa clan fight against each other in 1507, and this clan war would last for 3 decades.

### The Europeans arrive

In 1543, merchants and Christian missionaries from Portugal shipwrecked on the shores of a small Japanese island of Tanegashima. While they were there, they traded in goods such as ways to measure time such as clocks and the solar calendar. They also brought firearms such as the matchlock rifle called the "Arquebus", and after a successful shooting down a duck at a local lake, the local swordsmith went to work to make copies, eventually the Japanese made their own variant of the Arquebus; the Tanegashima.

The Portuguese would also bring their religion to Japan; Christianity. For several decades, the Japanese would convert and by the latter part of the 16th century over a million Japanese became Christian. Some Japanese people thought this was a good thing, while other Japanese people didn't like it, and Christianity would play a key role in the escalation of the Sengoku Jidai.

### The Plot (and the Blood) thickens

By the second half of the 16th century. The Sengoku Jidai was still going on, and seemingly no end in sight. But 3 samurai lords would in the coming decades put an end to the bloodshed; Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, and Ieyasu Tokugawa, they will be known in Japan as "The Great Unifiers".

Nobunaga would gain military prestige after he defeated the Imagawa clan in 1560 by killing their leader; Yoshimoto, he would also put down several "Ikko-Ikki" monk rebels as well. But his most famous battle was the "Battle of Nagashino" in 1575, this would be the one of the first battles in Japanese history where firearms were used on a wide scale that was never before seen in Japanese warfare. Nobunaga's battles would make his name well-known throughout Japan as well as feared. But Nobunaga's feared reputation would be put to the test in 1582 as one of his loyal generals; Mitsuhide Akechi would betray and ambush Nobunaga at the Honnoji Temple while Nobunaga was there for a Tea Ceremony.

To try to deter and defeat Mitsuhide's forces, Nobunaga orders his forces to set the temple on fire. But Mitsuhide's forces would defeat Nobunaga's, and the 2 Daimyo would fight against each other in the burning temple.

After a heard fight, Nobunaga falls to Mitsuhide and what happens to Nobunaga next is still uncertain. Some accounts say that Nobunaga committed Seppuku or let the flames of the temple consume him. Either way, Nobunaga would die never to see his ambitions realized.

### Revenge

News of Nobunaga's death spread quickly, and when this news reaches one of Nobunaga's other loyal Daimyo; Hideyoshi Toyotomi, he wanted revenge.

Hideyoshi would spent months hunting down Mitsuhide, he would eventually find him and defeat him at Mt. Tenmo.

After completing his quest for revenge, Hideyoshi would then argue with other members of the Oda clan on who gets to replace Nobunaga, this would boil over by 1583 as Hideyoshi would deny Nobutaka (one of the sons of Nobunaga) the title of Daimyo of the Oda, and he would fight and defeat Nobutaka and take control of the Oda, but Nobunaga's other son; Nobukatsu would try to fight Hideyoshi at the Battle of Komaki-Nagakute in 1584, the fight would end in a draw and both Daimyo would negotiate a truce. Hideyoshi also tried to win the country of Japan through political negotiations rather than just through military conquest, he would even try to get the Emperor to make him the next shogun, but because Hideyoshi was of peasant stock, the Emperor refuses, but would give him the title of "Kampaku" (a regent to the Emperor) as well as the surname of Toyotomi.

Over the next 2 decades, Hideyoshi would continue to gain more territory for his newly created clan, and along with other clans loyal to him (one of them being Ieyasu tokugawa, known for his careful, patient, and meticulous strategizing) would fight other clans who refuse to pledge loyalty to him. By the 1590s, Hideyoshi would set his eyes on defeating the biggest clan in the east (as he already conquered most of western Japan by this time) that still oppose him; the Hojo. After defeating the clan and taking their castle, Hideyoshi had now claimed most of known Japan under his clan's banner.

### Going too far

With most of Japan now in the hands of the Toyotomi, Hideoyshi began to have bigger ambitions, like, say, the conquest of the Koryu and Joseon empires (modern-day North and South Korea respectively) and maybe the Ming Dynasty (which is in decline at this point), eventhough the Japanese would be successful in invading the captial of the Joseon Empire (a city that will be known as Seoul today), the 3 far east empires would form a coalition and defeat the Japanese in 1592, 6 years later the Japanese would again try and fail to take Joseon.

The invasion was put off indefinitely when Hideyoshi died on September 18, with his son (Hideyori) being only 5 or 6 years old at the time of Hideyoshi's death. This is when Hideyoshi's power was broken up to 5 of Hideyoshi's 5 loyal retainers, thus creating the short lived "Council of the 5 elders", and one of those elders was Ieyasu Tokugwa.

Unbeknownst to the other elders at first, Ieyasu had his own agenda for Japan, and wanted to use this period of small power to take advantage. But Ieyasu had some competition among the other elders, one of which was Mitsunari Ishida, for the next 2 years Ieyasu's rivalry with Mitsunari would slowly build up and eventually explode in 1600 when Ieyasu massed his clan's forces and headed to where he was going to meet Mitsunari, a valley region known as Sekigahara.

### Battle of Sekigahara

Early in the morning on October 21, the 2 forces led by Ieyasu and Mitsunari respectively were in the valley, a thick valley fog and a light rain was in the area. Ieyasu knew he was outnumbered and wanted to wait until his son; Hidetada came with the rest of his forces. But as the morning went on and the fog lifted, Ieyasu's hand was forced and ordered his generals to attack.

This long and hard battle would at first be sour of Ieyasu's forces, and at one time were totally surrounded, in desperation Ieyasu ordered his canon fodders to fire on the forces of Hideaki Kobayakawa who were on the top of Mt. Matsuo overlooking the valley, with this gamble, Hideaki ordered to attack Mitsunari's forces, though they were forced to retreat a short time later, but this convinced other generals fighting for Mitsunari to turn on him, and within a few hours, Ieyasu would win this battle.

Ieyasu has won, and with it a 150 year long civil war in Japan. Though, Ieyasu would win at Sekigahara and brought a long desired peace to Japan, there was one loose end to tie up, Hideyoshi's son; Hideyori. In 1614, Hideyori would come of age, and gathered other Daimyo that remain loyal to the Toyotomi Clan to hopefully rise up against the newly created Tokugawa Shogunate. Ieyasu (though no longer Shogunate at this time) had to take care of Hideyori who could lay ruin to everything Ieyasu fought hard for, so he led an army ang with his son Hidetada (who was shogun by this time) and head off for Osaka.

### End of Sengoku

During the winter, Ieyasu's forces dug in for a siege, and after attempting a final lea to Hideyori, he ordered his men to fill in the moats surrounding the Castle, and by the summer of 1615, Ieyasu's forces invaded the castle, killing everybody inside and setting the castle in fire. Hideyori than had no choice but to commit Seppuku. Thus, the Sengoku Jidai has ended.

The age of civil war in Japan has officially ended. Now, the Tokugawas have established a dynasty in Japan which will endure for another 200 years, and during that time, the Tokugawas will have the responsibility to maintain their rule over Japan.

That will be it for this part of this series about thehistory of Japan. In our next part (click here), we will talk about Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate, how it isolated Japan, and the growing of Edo. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.