Toyotomi Hideyori

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Toyotomi Hideyori

Toyotomi Hideyori (?? ?? Toyotomi Hideyori), 1593 - June 5, 1615, was the son and designated successor of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

was a Sengoku period daimyo who unified Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, after Hideyoshi's castle....
, the general who first united all of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
.

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Toyotomi Hideyori (?? ?? Toyotomi Hideyori), 1593 - June 5, 1615, was the son and designated successor of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Japan

Oda Nobunaga

was a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of History of Japan. He was the second son of Oda Nobuhide, a deputy shugo with land holdings in Owari province....
.

When Hideyoshi died in 1598, the regents

Council of Five Elders

The council of five elders, also known as the five Tairo , was formed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to rule Japan in the place of his son, Toyotomi Hideyori, until such time as he came of age....
he had appointed to rule in Hideyori's place began jockeying amongst themselves for power. Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu

Japanese name|Tokugawa}} was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868....
seized control in 1600, after his victory over the others at the Battle of Sekigahara

Battle of Sekigahara

The , popularly known as the , was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 which cleared the path to the Shogunate for Tokugawa Ieyasu. Though it would take three more years for Ieyasu to consolidate his position of power over the Toyotomi clan and the daimyo, Sekigahara is widely considered to be the unofficial beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate,...
. Hideyori married the seven year old granddaughter of Ieyasu, Senhime

Senhime

Senhime or Princess Sen was the eldest daughter of the shogun Tokugawa Hidetada and his wife Oeyo. She was born during the Sengoku Period of History of Japan....
, to ensure his loyalty towards the Tokugawa clan. However Ieyasu continued to view the young Hideyori as a potential threat, and attacked Hideyori in the Siege of Osaka

Siege of Osaka

The was a series of battles undertaken by the Tokugawa shogunate against the Toyotomi clan, and ending in that clan's destruction. Divided into two stages , and lasting from 1614 to 1615, the siege put an end to the last major armed opposition to the shogunate's establishment....
in winter 1614. The attack failed, but Hideyori was induced to sign a truce and dismantle the defenses of his stronghold Osaka Castle

Osaka Castle

is a Japanese castle in Chuo-ku, Osaka, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan.Originally called Ozakajo, it is one of Japan's most famous castles, and played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century of the Azuchi-Momoyama period....
.

In April 1615, Ieyasu received word that Toyotomi Hideyori was gathering even more troops than in the previous November, and that he was trying to stop the filling of the moat. Toyotomi forces (often called the Western Army) began to attack contingents of the Shogun's forces (the Eastern Army) near Osaka. On June 5 1615. As Toyotomi's forces began to lose the battle, smaller force led directly by Hideyori sallied forth from Osaka Castle too late, and was chased right back into the castle by the advancing enemies; there was no time to set up a proper defense of the castle, and it was soon ablaze, and being pummeled by artillery fire. Hideyori committed seppuku

Seppuku

is a form of Japanese Suicide#Ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for samurai. Part of the samurai honor code, seppuku was used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies, as a form of capital punishment for samurai who have committed serious offenses, and for reason...
, and the final major uprising against Tokugawa rule for another 250 or so years was put to an end.

Hideyori's son Kunimatsu (age 8) was captured and beheaded; his daughter was sent to Tokei-ji

Tokei-ji

, also known as or ), is a Buddhist temple and a former nunnery, the only survivor of a network of five nunneries called , in the city of Kamakura, Kanagawa in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan....
, a convent in Kamakura

Kamakura, Kanagawa

is a cities of Japan located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called . Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is sometimes considered a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Shikken during the Kamakura Period....
, where she later became the abbess

Abbess

An abbess is the female religious superior, or Mother Superior, of an abbey of nuns.In Roman Catholic and Anglican abbeys, the mode of election, position, rights, and authority of an abbess correspond generally with those of an abbot....
Tenshu-ni.

Toyotomi Hideyori

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