Destroyer, Unifier, Maintainer · 2:47pm Jun 13th, 2014
An unexpected trip to Japan over the last month has held back work on ponyfics but fear not, for I will be done with a couple of chapters of this and that relatively soon. Writing and editing is bloody time consuming you know.
Anyway, on to today's history lesson.
Before going to Japan, I read up on Japanese history from the Sengoku Period (1450-1600) to the end of the Edo Period (1860). I decided on three decisive men to talk about, who my western published book called the unifiers, but whom the Japanese call the destroyer, the unifier, and the maintainer. I speak of course of Oda Nabunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Oda Nabunaga was the logical conclusion of two centuries of endless warfare between the lords of Japan. He was ruthless and hard, completely merciless to his enemies and marginally more friendly to his allies. Through murder and strong-handing, he carved out a modest holding in central Honshu. During this time he made an ally of the future shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. Nabunaga sided with the ailing Ashikaga shogun as a pretense to attack his neighbors, but made no pretense of being more than fair weather friends. In response the shogun formed an alliance against him, which was crushed and all of it's clans massacred. It seemed like smooth sailing for a unification of Japan for Nabunaga, but he was betrayed by one of his vassals and killed.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the son of a farmer who served as Oda Nabunaga's sandal bearer. Through his charisma and pragmatism, he rose through the ranks quickly. At the time of Nabunaga's death, he was one of the most powerful generals, personally controlling some of his liege's richest lands. After Nabunaga death, Hideyoshi supported the weakest heir as the successor and cast him aside once the pretenders were vanquished. He completed the unification of Japan, offering forgiveness to some of his enemies. However he became paranoid in his age, and led all of Japan in a brutal and unsuccessful invasion of Korea. He died of the plague as the invasion began to falter, leaving his clan depleted of men and money.
Tokugawa Ieyasu lived as a hostage in the Oda clan, and grew up with Nabunaga. However he was transferred to a rival clan and became a leading general there. When his liege died fighting the Oda, Ieyasu allied with them, and conquered alongside Nabunaga until his death. Ieyasu and the former Oda allies battled over the former Oda lands until Hideyoshi reigned supreme, with Ieyasu acknowledging him as his liege. He stayed out of Hideyoshi's unification campaigns save for the last one, where he gained the Kanto region and Edo in exchange for his homelands. Hideyoshi's death set off a power struggle between the regents for his young son, where Ieyasu led an alliance of western daimyo to victory. Some of the losers were left unmolested, but the majority were either crippled of wiped out. Ieyasu took the title of shogun, whereas his predecessors had only taken the title of imperial regent. Several years later, he killed Hideyoshi's only son in a siege of the castle of Osaka. Ieyasu died and succeeded in keeping his family as the rulers of Japan. The Tokugawa's ruled until the Meiji Restoration, over two hundred years later.
Moral of the story is be just enough a jerk that people take you seriously and you have no qualms about doing what needs to be done, but not so much of a jerk that you get betrayed. Pretty long winded I know, but sometimes you can't rely on Disney to give you the most important life lessons.
