Hideyoshi
(1537-1598) was the second of the three unifiers of Japan in the 16th
century [the first was Oda Nobunaga and the 2nd was Tokugawa Ieyasu].
He was born the son of a peasant farmer and rose in power under Oda because
of his skills as a general and a politician [and also because he happened
to always be in the right places at the right times]. Hideyoshi specialized
in gaining the allegiance of his enemies instead of destroying them, with
the exception of Buddhist monks who continually opposed him and were put
to death. He was also famous for unsuccessfully invading Korea in 1592
to 1598, for emphasizing cultural achievements for the samurai class,
and for sporadic suppression of foreign religious powers.
| Over my Christmas vacation I read about Hideyoshi in Mary Elizabeth Berry's book, which was ingeniously titled "Hideyoshi". The book reads a lot like a text book, as opposed to a novel, but gives a lot of detail and has some interesting views on who Hideyoshi was. And since there really aren't a lot of books about him in English one can't complain too much. |
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