The Sword Hunt
Ieyasu's transfer is typical of the way in which Hideyoshi sought to stabilize the existing power structure in what he saw as his own and the national interest. His unification was based neither on outright despotism nor on visionary ideas, but on precedent and a prudent assessment of actualities. The daimyo were not eliminated as a class, although many daimyo families lost territory to Hideyoshi's most capable and trustworthy followers. All daimyo - old and new - were required to swear a solemn oath of allegiance to the emperor, promising at the same time to obey the commands of his regent (i.e. Hideyoshi) "down to the smallest particular."

Hideyoshi also realized that the problem of daimyo allegiance was part of the wider problem of general pacification. Since the end of Heian period (which I probably will explain later) a vast quantity of arms - mainly swords - had been produced in Japan, and these were widely distributed among the population (the situation may be compared to the present-day prevalence of firearms in the US). Internal peace depended on a sweeping domestic disarmament. Hideyoshi enforced this in 1588 with his "sword hunt" decree in which he instructed peasants everywhere to hand over swords and armor to their official superiors. The metal collected would, he announced, be used for the manufacture of a huge statue of Buddha in Kyoto, and so those who obeyed promptly would make things easier for themselves in this and the next world. Defaulters were severely treated by inspectors sent out to supervise the sword hunt, which proved successful in its primary aim of disarming the population. It also marked an important stage in differentiating between the samurai, or warrior vassals, and the peasant masses. Hitherto there had been no sharp distinction, but from then on the large class of samurai-farmers (from whose ranks Hideyoshi himself had come) was force to choose between soldiering and farming; no longer could its member do a bit of both.

The Tragic End of Hideyoshi Rule
Hideyoshi made up his mind that his authority should continue in his own family, but he was dogged by misfortune. He had made his nephew, Hidetsugu, his heir in 1592 because his son had died in infancy two years earlier and he despaired of having more children (Doushite? @_@). Then the following years, his favorite concubine had another son, who was called Hideyori. Delighted with this turn of events, Hideyoshi resolved to make the new baby his appointed successor. To do this, he had to disinherit Hidetsugu. The task was not difficult, as his nephew had earned a reputation for dissipation and cruelty. But Hideyoshi went to extremes against his former heir. In 1959 he ordered him to commit seppuku and then had all his wives and children killed in a public and brutal way (sorry, cannot tell you the details). It has been suggested that Hideyoshi's mind was somewhat affected during these last years of his life. Certainly, his treatment of Hidetsugu's household differs markedly from the generosity he had customarily shown his political foes. Yet the succession problem was a unique one, and the way he handled it cannot really be compared with his attitude towards other weighty matters. Moreover, the problem was virtually insoluble in the condition of the time, because the daimyo were still free to contest national leadership for themselves after Hideyoshi's death, and because the principle that the national leadership should be determined in terms of national, not family, interest was by no means established.

Hideyoshi attempted solution was therefore understandable, but was sadly mistaken. Too much was at stake to leave to an infant - Hidetsugu at any rate had had the merit of being a man in his twenties. Again and again in his dying moments Hideyoshi called on the greatest daimyo to swear support to Hideyori. They swore readily enough, but the fate of Nobunaga's grown-up sons in 1582 and later must have made him realize the uselessness of such promises. Other troubles which clouded the hero's old age were an abortive war against China and increasing anxiety about Christianity (e-mail me for the details, ok?!)

Administration Under the Tokugawa
While Hideyoshi lay dying in the summer of 1598 he arranged for five of the greatest daimyo to govern the country as a council of the regents on behalf of his five-year-old son, Hideyori. The regents naturally had to give most of their time to the administration of their own large domains, and Hideyoshi intended them to do no more than keep watch over relations between the military leaders and the imperial court, the loyalty of the daimyo to the house of Toyotomi, religious affairs, and Japan's foreign relations. In practices, supervision meant keeping a close check on the activities of a group of five commissioners, who were personally less powerful than the regents but had earned Hideyoshi's trust as competent administrators.

Mixed government by regents and commissioners managed to organize the recall of Japanese troops from Korea towards the end of 1598, but began to fall apart soon after that. The most powerful regent was Tokugawa Ieyasu; it turned out that he had an able an implacable foe in one of the commissioners, Ishida Mitsunari. This man never tired in his attempts to stir up trouble for Ieyasu by inciting the daimyo against him (what a dickhead!). Apart from active intriguing, other, more static forces were at work. In the delicate situation following Hideyoshi's death the preponderance of Tokugawa power was too great to be left alone. Ieyasu had either to take the final steps which would ensure the supremacy of himself and his sons, or face the prospect that jealous rivals would wait for a chance to humble them forever.

Ishida's schemings forced the issue. On 21 October 1600 an army eighty thousand strong, led by him but provided by a coalition of "western" daimyo, attacked the same number of "eastern" troops under the command of Ieyasu. Ishida's forces were defeated. This decisive encounter took place at Sekigahara, about a hundred kilometers northeast of Kyoto. Fifteen years later, Ieyasu completed the chain of events begun at Sekigahara by besieging and eventually destroying the headquarters of the Toyotomi party in Osaka castle. The luckless Hideyori died in the flame of the final attack.

The Birth of Tokugawa Bakufu
The Sekigahara and Osaka campaigns gave Ieyasu and his heirs military control of the entire country. Authority won by arms had been the basis of every system of political control since the various acts of submission of the court aristocracy to the Taira and Minamoto warriors families in the twelfth century (I'll probably write about them later ^^). Therefore Tokugawa rulers certainly did not break any new ground in the way they achieved power. Nor were they unusual in the steps they took to shift the source of power from the battlefield to the palace, the castle, and the council chamber, and in general to convert a position of mere might into one more decently clothed in ideas of right. But while there may have been plenty of precedents for these policies of stabilization and legitimization, what was extraordinary was the resounding success with which the Tokugawa pursued them. The Tokugawa Bakufu or government set up its headquarters in Edo on the Kanto plain, in time creating a metropolis out of what had been a fishing village surrounded by marshland. It lasted for over two hundred and fifty years, until 1868 (read Meiji Restoration). For most of this long period, Japan lived at peace both with the outside world and within her own frontiers.

Acknowledgments:
1. Mason, R. H. P. and J. G. Caiger. A History of Japan, Revised Edition: The Fourth Printing. Tuttle Publishing: Boston, Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo. 2001.
2. Papa, thank you for lending me some money to buy "outstanding" books.