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==The Legend==  

==The Legend==  

[[Image:Toyotomi_hideyoshi.jpg||thumb|right|Toyotomi Hideyoshi]]

[[Image:Toyotomi_hideyoshi.jpg||thumb|right|Toyotomi Hideyoshi]]

One of the most remarkable men in Japanese history, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was born a peasant and yet rose to finally end the [[Sengoku Period]]. In fact, little is known for certain about Hideyoshi's career prior to [[1570]], the year when he begins to appear in surviving documents and letters. The autobiography he commissioned begins with the year [[1577]] (the year he came into his own with an independent command to fight the Mori) and Hideyoshi himself was known to speak very little if at all about his past. According to tradition, Hideyoshi was born in a village called Nakamura in [[Owari province]], the son of a foot-soldier/peasant known to us as Yaemon. Hideyoshi's childhood name is recorded as Hiyoshimaru, or 'bounty of the sun', quite possibly a later embellishment contrived to give substance to a claim of divine inspiration Hideyoshi made regarding his birth. The popular image of Hideyoshi's youth has him being shipped off to a temple, only to depart in search of adventure. He travels all the way to the lands of [[Imagawa Yoshimoto]] and serves there for a time, only to abscond with a sum of money entrusted into his care by [[Matsushita Yukitsuna]]. Hiyoshi (now known as Tokachiro) returns to Owari (around [[1557]]) and finds service with the young [[Oda Nobunaga]], whose attention he manages to secure. He somehow becomes involved with the rebuilding of [[Kiyosu Castle]] and acts as a foreman, all the while earning the enmity of the senior Oda retainers. Tokachiro is then given a position as one of Nobunaga's sandal-bearers and is present for the [[Battle of Okehazama]] in [[1560]]; by [[1564]] he becomes known as Kinoshita Hideyoshi and manages to bribe a number of Mino warlords to desert the Saito. By now, Nobunaga has become impressed with Hideyoshi's natural talent, and it's thanks to Hideyoshi that Inabayama is taken with ease in [[1567]] (owing to Hideyoshi throwing up a fort at nearby Sunomata and discovering a secret route leading to the rear of Inabayama). Some time later, probably in [[1573]], Hideyoshi adopted the surname Hashiba, which he created by borrowing characters from two ranking Oda retainers, Niwa Nagahide and Shibata Katsuie. By this time he is married to a woman known as Nene (or O-ne); his mother had by now remarried, and through her marriage to a certain Chikuami produced Hidenaga, Hideyoshi's trusted half-brother.  

One of the most remarkable men in Japanese history, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was born a peasant and yet rose to finally end the [[Sengoku Period]]. In fact, little is known for certain about Hideyoshi's career prior to [[1570]], the year when he begins to appear in surviving documents and letters. The autobiography he commissioned begins with the year [[1577]] (the year he came into his own with an independent command to fight the Mori) and Hideyoshi himself was known to speak very little if at all about his past. According to tradition, Hideyoshi was born in a village called Nakamura in [[Owari province]], the son of a foot-soldier/peasant known to us as Yaemon. Hideyoshi's childhood name is recorded as Hiyoshimaru, or 'bounty of the sun', quite possibly a later embellishment contrived to give substance to a claim of divine inspiration Hideyoshi made regarding his birth. The popular image of Hideyoshi's youth has him being shipped off to a temple, only to depart in search of adventure. He travels all the way to the lands of [[Imagawa Yoshimoto]] and serves there for a time, only to abscond with a sum of money entrusted into his care by [[Matsushita Yukitsuna]]. Hiyoshi (now known as Tokichiro) returns to Owari (around [[1557]]) and finds service with the young [[Oda Nobunaga]], whose attention he manages to secure. He somehow becomes involved with the rebuilding of [[Kiyosu castle]] and acts as a foreman, all the while earning the enmity of the senior Oda retainers. Tokachiro is then given a position as one of Nobunaga's sandal-bearers and is present for the [[Battle of Okehazama]] in [[1560]]; by [[1564]] he becomes known as Kinoshita Hideyoshi and manages to bribe a number of Mino warlords to desert the Saito. By now, Nobunaga has become impressed with Hideyoshi's natural talent, and it's thanks to Hideyoshi that Inabayama is taken with ease in [[1567]] (owing to Hideyoshi throwing up a fort at nearby Sunomata and discovering a secret route leading to the rear of Inabayama). Some time later, probably in [[1573]], Hideyoshi adopted the surname Hashiba, which he created by borrowing characters from two ranking Oda retainers, [[Niwa Nagahide]] and [[Shibata Katsuie]]. By this time he is married to a woman known as [[Nene]] (or O-ne); his mother had by now remarried, and through her marriage to a certain [[Chikuami]] produced [[Hashiba Hidenaga|Hidenaga]], Hideyoshi's trusted half-brother.  

Hideyoshi certainly cut an odd figure, especially as a general and later as a ruler. Short and thinly proportioned, Hideyoshi's sunken features were likened to that of a monkey, with the rarely tactful Nobunaga taking to calling him Saru (monkey) and the 'bald rat'. He was said to enjoy his drink and women more then most and as a younger man made friends easily. He had an innate sense for manipulation and reading other men, attributes that no doubt helped him in his rise through the Oda ranks.  

Hideyoshi certainly cut an odd figure, especially as a general and later as a ruler. Short and thinly proportioned, Hideyoshi's sunken features were likened to that of a monkey, with the rarely tactful Nobunaga taking to calling him Saru (monkey) and the 'bald rat'. He was said to enjoy his drink and women more then most and as a younger man made friends easily. He had an innate sense for manipulation and reading other men, attributes that no doubt helped him in his rise through the Oda ranks.