Changes

In the summer of 1598, Hideyoshi fell ill and summoned his most important vassals to his bedside. During August he established a council of regents (Tokugawa Ieyasu, [[Meada Toshiie]], Mori Terumoto, [[Ukita Hideie]], and [[Uesugi Kagekatsu]]) to rule while Hideyori came of age as well as a team of five administrators (bugyo) to handle domestic matters. These bugyo included [[Ishida Mitsunari]], [[Natsuka Masaie]], [[Maeda Gen-I]], [[Mashita Nagamori]], and [[Asano Nagamasa]]. Each man was made to sign a pledge of loyalty to the five-year old Hideyori, providing the scene with an element of pathos. Hideyoshi insisted again and again that the five men he had chosen as regents (whom he hoped would keep one another in check) be loyal to Hideyori, and no doubt counted on Maeda Toshiie, the powerful lord of Kaga who was close to Hideyoshi and shared rural Owari roots. Finally, he succumbed to his illness and finally died on 18 September 1598. The war in Korea was called off and the peninsula abandoned; Maeda Toshiie died in [[1599]] and within two years of Hideyoshi's death the council of regents would be broken and Tokugawa Ieyasu would rise supreme, assuming the title of shogun in 1603. Hideyori resided in [[Osaka Castle]] until [[1615]]. After two sieges (Winter and Summer, [[1614]] and [[1615]]) by Tokugawa forces, he committed suicide, along with the Lady Yodo. The Toyotomi name was eliminated.  

In the summer of 1598, Hideyoshi fell ill and summoned his most important vassals to his bedside. During August he established a council of regents (Tokugawa Ieyasu, [[Meada Toshiie]], Mori Terumoto, [[Ukita Hideie]], and [[Uesugi Kagekatsu]]) to rule while Hideyori came of age as well as a team of five administrators (bugyo) to handle domestic matters. These bugyo included [[Ishida Mitsunari]], [[Natsuka Masaie]], [[Maeda Gen-I]], [[Mashita Nagamori]], and [[Asano Nagamasa]]. Each man was made to sign a pledge of loyalty to the five-year old Hideyori, providing the scene with an element of pathos. Hideyoshi insisted again and again that the five men he had chosen as regents (whom he hoped would keep one another in check) be loyal to Hideyori, and no doubt counted on Maeda Toshiie, the powerful lord of Kaga who was close to Hideyoshi and shared rural Owari roots. Finally, he succumbed to his illness and finally died on 18 September 1598. The war in Korea was called off and the peninsula abandoned; Maeda Toshiie died in [[1599]] and within two years of Hideyoshi's death the council of regents would be broken and Tokugawa Ieyasu would rise supreme, assuming the title of shogun in 1603. Hideyori resided in [[Osaka Castle]] until [[1615]]. After two sieges (Winter and Summer, [[1614]] and [[1615]]) by Tokugawa forces, he committed suicide, along with the Lady Yodo. The Toyotomi name was eliminated.  

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was truly a remarkable figure, an anomalous character in the pageant of Japanese history that continues to provoke debate and study. Few Japanese leaders have attracted as much adulation and hero-worship from both scholars and the general public, to the extent that Hideyoshi is recreated, it seems, every twenty years in a new, ever-more relevant image. Eiji Yoshikawa, in his famous book Taiko (also published much more recently in America), presents Hideyoshi in the role of an infallible, spunky metaphor for the author's idealized version of Japan itself. Mary Berry's 1982 biography sifts through Hideyoshi's career, attempting to place his decisions and activities in a manner compatible with modern assumptions regarding developments in Japanese history. Modern Japanese television dramas and novels continue to popularize Hideyoshi's life (updated, of course, to account for more modern social standards), essentially regurgitating events portrayed in the Taiko sujoki and Taiko-ki, some of which are historically shaky, to say the least.  

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was truly a remarkable figure, an anomalous character in the pageant of Japanese history that continues to provoke debate and study. Few Japanese leaders have attracted as much adulation and hero-worship from both scholars and the general public, to the extent that Hideyoshi is recreated, it seems, every twenty years in a new, ever-more relevant image. Eiji Yoshikawa, in his famous book Taiko (also published much more recently in America), presents Hideyoshi in the role of an infallible, spunky metaphor for the author's idealized version of Japan itself. Mary Berry's 1982 biography sifts through Hideyoshi's career, attempting to place his decisions and activities in a manner compatible with modern assumptions regarding developments in Japanese history. Modern Japanese television dramas and novels continue to popularize Hideyoshi's life (updated, of course, to account for more modern social standards), essentially regurgitating events portrayed in the Taiko sujoki and [[Taiko-ki]], some of which are historically shaky, to say the least.  

All of these tend to distract us from a clear and well-rounded picture of Toyotomi Hideyoshi the man. Hideyoshi is often portrayed as a hero, a shining figure and the progenitor of a golden age. The inconsistency his later actions create is often simply ignored. Yoshikawa, for instance, even in the original (unabridged) Taiko, elects to end the story prior to 1590, conveniently avoiding the less-than flattering events that follow. Furthermore, few works on Hideyoshi care to mention the almost unbelievable suffering his ill-advised invasions of Korea caused the Korean people. Few structures dated prior to 1592 can today be found anywhere in the country south of Pyongyang, a mute testimonial to the savagery of the war. One damaging result of Hideyoshi's Korean endeavors to the Toyotomi house may have been that it denied him the sort of peace in which to cement his control over the country that Ieyasu would enjoy between 1600 and 1603. One of the subtle consequences of the Korean war was that it sapped the strength of those families who might be counted on to support the Toyotomi cause in the future while sparing the potential usurpers - namely, Tokugawa Ieyasu.  

All of these tend to distract us from a clear and well-rounded picture of Toyotomi Hideyoshi the man. Hideyoshi is often portrayed as a hero, a shining figure and the progenitor of a golden age. The inconsistency his later actions create is often simply ignored. Yoshikawa, for instance, even in the original (unabridged) Taiko, elects to end the story prior to 1590, conveniently avoiding the less-than flattering events that follow. Furthermore, few works on Hideyoshi care to mention the almost unbelievable suffering his ill-advised invasions of Korea caused the Korean people. Few structures dated prior to 1592 can today be found anywhere in the country south of Pyongyang, a mute testimonial to the savagery of the war. One damaging result of Hideyoshi's Korean endeavors to the Toyotomi house may have been that it denied him the sort of peace in which to cement his control over the country that Ieyasu would enjoy between 1600 and 1603. One of the subtle consequences of the Korean war was that it sapped the strength of those families who might be counted on to support the Toyotomi cause in the future while sparing the potential usurpers - namely, Tokugawa Ieyasu.