Mar
8th
2020
A curious question... · 3:20am Mar 8th, 2020
If anyone here is Japanese, or has been to Japan and is knowledgeable on the subject, how does the common Japanese see the struggle between Tokugawa and Ishida? The one shown in the two videos below.
It seems to me like Tokugawa unjustly seized power from the Toyotomis, and that Ishida was trying to defend the right of the boy heir to be shogun, but there is probably a lot more to the story that I'm missing.
Well, Tokugawa Ieyasui? While my knowledge on that is a bit rusty, he did help unify the land, following in the footsteps of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and is celebrated as such. I'll ask a friend who is Japanese
OK, to quote them "When Hideyoshi passed on, his heir was but a child, too young to lead his clan, much less the whole country, so it was inevitable that there'd be men looking to take it for themselves"
Plus well, the Sengoku Jidai was basically a power struggle that lasted decades
"when the shogun's power weakened, or he grew old and infirm, there would be a fight to be his replacement if he didn't have an heir
all the best either died in battle or sided with Tokugawa:
"but believe it or not, what made Ieyasu so successful was his alliance with the 3
Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Hattori Hanzo"
The Sengoku Jidai was always going to be a 'last man standing' sort of period.
Hideyori was the heir to a family that had brought military shame on Japan with defeat in Korea, twice. So they were unpopular, but they were the ticket to power for many nobles so they had just enough power to hold onto the Shogunate. But there were still powerful generals from the Jidai period still alive and they hadn't fought for so long to see Japan turned over to a bumbling family led by a 5 year old. So Tokugawa rallied those who were dissatisfied with Hideyoshi rule and chucked Hideyori out, letting him keep some of his power but taking the Shogunate for himself. All of Hideyoshi's supporters got pissed and attacked Tokugawa, and he killed them all, thus making him the last man standing.