Azuchi Momoyama time
The Azuchi Momoyama period ( Japanese 安 土 桃山 時代 Azuchi Momoyama jidai ; 1573-1603) is the epoch of the unified empires Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi , when they began to unite the Japan of the Warring States ( Sengoku-jidai ) militarily. It is also called Shokuho time ( o 豊 時代 Shokuho jidai ) after these two . With Tokugawa Ieyasu as the third unifier, this time is also called the era of the three unifiers .
This section of Japanese history is named after Oda Nobunaga's fortress Azuchi and Toyotomi Hideyoshi's residence in Fushimi (Momoyama). Azuchi Castle clearly showed the changes in defense technology, as it took into account the emergence of firearms and the siege by mass armies in its construction. The castle town of Momoyama showed characteristics of the city that emerged in the Edo period as a center of trade and culture. The period of the Nanban trade also falls during this period , during which Japan exchanges lively with other countries before the country closed itself off to the outside world.
The rise and fall of Oda Nobunaga
Oda Nobunaga, who began his career as a little daimyo with victory in the Battle of Okehazama , prevailed with his troops and superior firearms against the daimyo in his vicinity and took Kyōto in 1568, where he became an Ashikaga shogun ( Yoshihide ) for another one he weighed ( Yoshiaki ). He conquered the Kinki area and blackmailed the city of Sakai to fill his war chest.
Next, Oda Nobunaga took action against the three powerful monasteries Kōfuku-ji , Enryaku-ji and Kōya-san , which had large estates and their own troops of mercenaries and armed monks. In 1571 he had the temple in Enryakuji burned down. Other temples then made peace alliances with him. The influence of the monasteries, which had existed in Kyoto since the 8th century, was broken. In 1573 he marched back into Kyoto to depose Ashikaga Yoshiaki . This time he abolished the shogunate entirely. The "Azuchi Momoyama Period" is set either from 1568 with Nobunaga's invasion of Kyoto or 1573 with the deposition of the Shogun, and the exact end date and the transition to the Edo period have not been clearly set on a date.
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More battles, pillages and mass murders followed. But in 1582 Oda Nobunaga was attacked by his vassal Akechi Mitsuhide and forced to commit suicide (according to Inoue , according to other sources, he was murdered). By the time he died, Oda Nobunaga had brought central Japan under his control and eliminated all major competitors there. The conquest of the periphery now happened through his successors.
Association under Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a farmer's son, took Oda Nobunaga's position and continued the process of unification by the sword. Impressed by his 230,000-strong army, many daimyo submitted voluntarily. In 1590 there was a last war against the Hōjō descendants. Toyotomi Hideyoshi had completed the unification of Japan within 8 years.
Through Toyotomi Hideyoshi's skill in balancing the daimyo's interests, the administrative structure slowly stabilized. There were land surveys again, land ownership was determined, and new taxes and duties were demanded. Still there was no peace. Toyotomi had to use force against peasant uprisings. He separated the peasants and foot soldiers more strictly and forced peasants to stay in their villages. The upper class of the military, the samurai, were given new tasks: They were supposed to ensure unification of the country and peace. Trade with Portugal still existed and so more Christian missionaries came to the country. Their conversions were particularly successful with the peasants who owned nothing. They offered z. B. offer free medical care. In 1582 there were an estimated 150,000 Christians and 200 churches. However, the powerful in the country saw this with concern and tried to ban Christianity, since in the south of the country religiously motivated unrest by radicalized Christian converts is destabilizing the region. Reports from continental Asia tipped the positive mood towards the Europeans, and there were persecutions and mass executions.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's ambition did not stop at the borders of Japan: In the Imjin War he sent an army of 200,000 men to Korea so that this army could conquer China. However, the campaign was stopped before the Korean-Chinese border. With the invention of the turtle ship, the Korean admiral Yi Sun-Sin destroys the Japanese supply fleet . Even so, the conflict would last until Hideyoshi's death in 1598. A common thought is that Hideyoshi never seriously believed in victory, but sent the many soldiers of the Sengoku era to die to dispose of a source of potential rebellion. Toyotomi Hideyoshi died in 1598 and his generals broke off the campaign. Hideyoshi's plans to set up a dynasty with his underage children failed.
Battle of Sekigahara
Tokugawa Ieyasu , one of Hideyoshi's generals, usurped the successor. At the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, he prevailed against his allied rivals, laying the foundation for the domination of the House of Tokugawa . This new historical period is known as the Edo period and lasted until the Meiji Restoration .
Since the Tennō had formally retained the right to appoint shoguns through the centuries, Ieyasu was not able to adorn himself with the title until 1603. As early as 1605 he passed it on to his son in order to firmly establish his family. He retired to Sumpu, now Shizuoka , but continued to rule indirectly. During his reign he laid the foundations for internal and external peace by balancing the existing powers in Japan through a sophisticated system.
Art history
The magnificent castles built by Nobunaga and Hideyoshi in Azuchi on Lake Biwa and Fushimi Castle on Momoyama south of Kyoto, which were also artistically designed on the inside, influenced art throughout the country. Today, the Azuchi-Momoyama time or simply Momoyama time is a fixed term in Japanese art history, as in the Momoyama genre painting .
