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Hideyoshi had no surname, and his childhood given name was Hiyoshi-maru ( 日吉丸) ("Bounty of the Sun") although variations exist. Hideyoshi had no traceable samurai lineage, and his father Kinoshita Yaemon was an ashigaru – a peasant employed by the samurai as a foot soldier. His autobiography starts in 1577, but in it, Hideyoshi spoke very little about his past.Īccording to tradition, Hideyoshi was born on 17 March 1538 in Nakamura, Owari Province (present-day Nakamura Ward, Nagoya), in the middle of the chaotic Sengoku period under the collapsed Ashikaga Shogunate. Very little is known for certain about Toyotomi Hideyoshi before 1570, when he begins to appear in surviving documents and letters. Nakamura Park in Nagoya, traditionally regarded as Hideyoshi's birthplace.
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Hideyoshi left an influential and lasting legacy in Japan, including Osaka Castle, the Tokugawa class system, the restriction on the possession of weapons to the samurai, and the construction and restoration of many temples, some of which are still visible in Kyoto. Hideyoshi's rule covers most of the Azuchi–Momoyama period of Japan, partially named after his castle, Momoyama Castle.
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Hideyoshi's young son and successor Toyotomi Hideyori was displaced by Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 which would lead to the founding of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Hideyoshi launched the Japanese invasions of Korea in 1592 to initial success, but eventual military stalemate damaged his prestige before his death in 1598. Hideyoshi became the de facto leader of Japan and acquired the prestigious positions of Chancellor of the Realm and Imperial Regent by the mid-1580s. Hideyoshi succeeded Nobunaga after the Honnō-ji Incident in 1582 and continued Nobunaga's campaign to unite Japan that led to the closing of the Sengoku period. Hideyoshi rose from a peasant background as a retainer of the prominent lord Oda Nobunaga to become one of the most powerful men in Japan. Toyotomi Hideyoshi ( 豊臣 秀吉, 2 February 1537 – 18 September 1598), otherwise known as Kinoshita Tōkichirō ( 木下 藤吉郎) and Hashiba Hideyoshi ( 羽柴 秀吉), was a Japanese samurai and daimyō ( feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.
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