Origin
Izanagi walked through the clouds and met Izanami. Upon meeting, Izanami said: “What an attractive young man;” to which Izanagi replied: “How delightful, I have met a lovely maiden.” This exchange angered the other gods, who thought it inappropriate that a woman should speak first to a man, and they laid a curse on any children they would come to bear.
Izanagi and Izanami eloped and produced a broken child. It was cast out of heaven. They then tried to produce another and failed. They then learned of the curse which had been placed upon them, and the gods said that the curse would be undone if the two lovers would recreate the moment of their meeting–only Izanagi must speak first this time.
Thus, the meeting was recreated and Izanagi spoke first. All was well.
Izanami then gave birth to Awaji, and she was an island. She then gave birth to Iyo, Oki, Tsukushi, Iki, Tsushima, Sado, and Yamato. These became the islands of the east and they were called Great.
Men from across the sea sailed to these islands from the kingdom of lost mandates and they were called Jomon. They were vicious.
Izanami later bore the inferno Kagu-tsuchi and was burned in the process, thus she went to the underworld. When Izanagi heard this, he was distraught and followed her. While on his way, he killed Kagu-tsuchi.
When Izanami saw her brother’s coming she said: “My lord, why are you coming so late? I have already eaten at the furnace of hell. I am ready now to rest, please do not look at me.”
The underworld was dark, and Izanagi thought that he could look upon his wife in secret and saw that she had malformed. He let out a gasp and was caught by the thing that was Izanami, who said: “Why did you look at me? Now I am shamed.”
In her scorn, Izanami summoned eight hags to chase Izanagi and keep him within the underworld. He fled and approached the surface. At the last stretch, he turned to face his wife, who said: “If thou sayest, I will strangle to death the people in one day”. And Izanagi retorted: “If thou doest this thing, then I will raise 1500 more in a day”. And so he divorced her and ascended.
When Izanagi came to the surface, he washed the filth of the underworld from his person and created many gods in the process. Among these were golden Amaterasu and silver Tsuki-yumi. They quarrelled with one another until they were pulled apart; thus the day was separated from the night and the cycle of seasons was set into motion.
Shortly thereafter, Amaterasu had many children, and one of these was the Sea-God. The child of Amaterasu produced Ninigi, who then begat Jimmu.
Jimmu
Jimmu was born in the Great Islands and set about uniting the warring clans of Jomon. To do this, he was given three relics: the sword, the shield, and the jewel. These were the proof of his descent from Amaterasu, and he used them to unite the clans.
Jimmu sought the leaders of the southern Jomon clans and defeated them in single combat. His sword cut through their leather, his shield deflected their spears, and his jewel convinced them of his divinity. It was in this way that Jimmu, Descended-from-Gods became the first emperor of Japan.
Jimmu then went about subduing the hostile Jomon tribes of the north and died one century after declaring himself emperor.
Yamato-Takeru
Later, the descendants of Jimmu would bring a child named Yamato into the world, and he would become their greatest hero.
In his first adventure, Takeru was sent into the barbarian lands to the west and avenge his brothers who fell there. He resolved to recover his brothers’ remains and kill the chieftains who had ruined them. He could kill the chief and his men, but he could not locate the remains, so he devised a plan to secure them.
Yamato planned to disguise himself as a woman, and to enter the warlord’s halls as a courtesan. He did this with ease because the men who guarded the entrance to the warlord’s keep were slow and had poor sight. Upon infiltration, he saw that he would soon be discovered hiding among the other courtesans. To avoid this suspicion, Yamato kidnapped a courtesan who had strayed from the others and brought her into a closet where he silenced her. He then proceeded to steal her clothes and learned that her name was Kabuki. He proceeded to masquerade throughout the halls in this guise. This was the origin of Kabuki theater.
While disguised, Yamato found the warlord who had killed his brothers and coaxed their location out of him. Then Takeru killed the chief and revealed himself. The barbarians who saw this had no love for their previous ruler, and accepted Yamato as their leader and named him “Japan-Warrior-Chief”.
Now, Yamato returned to the capital to rejoice. This celebration was cut short by news that the fur-men to the east had been belligerent during his absence. Yamato went to subdue these too.
On his trip to the eastern lands, Yamato stopped to pray at the shrine of the Sea God where a great dragon had once been felled. When he left the shrine, he tripped on one of the skulls of the eight-headed beast and fell into a puddle which had been formed by its toxic spit. He died here.
The Storm God Susa was irritated by this uninspiring and premature end to what he knew would become a great hero, so eh travelled to the spot of Yamato’s demise and shot lighting from his sword into Yamator’s corpse. This revitalized the hero and made him stronger than before. Susa then gifted the lightning sword to Yamato for use against the Fur-men.
When Yamato approached the Fur-Men, they knew that he had come to subjugate them, so they breathed fire onto him. When they did this, the lightning sword raised a gale that bew the fire back in their direction and surrounded them.
When the Fur-men were surrounded, Yamato then shot lighting from the sword into the sky. The Fur-men were overawed by this and surrendered to him immediately. They did not resist again.
The prince then sailed with several of the Fur-men to a mountain where an evil spirit had been living. While on this journey, the Storm God was frustrated by the fact that Yamato had continued to use his sword, rather than returning it to the shrine, as this was his intention when he had gifted it. So Susa drew a vicious storm to trouble prince and his followers until several had thrown themselves off the boat to pacify him.
When this was done, the Storm God cursed Yamato for refusing to pay for his misdeeds himself. This curse slowly made Yamato sick and killed him.
The War of Wa
When the greatest descendants of Jimmu has died, lesser men carved up his empire. War prevailed between them and the Fur-men who had replaced the northern Jomon began to raid the south.
During this time, three warlords had risen in Jongguo and a merchant thought to escape from their tyranny by sailing to the Great Islands. He arrived there and this is the account of what he saw:
“I landed in the Kingdom of Yamataikoku of Wa and a Witch-Queen had brought the land under her dominion. Her name was Pimiko and she had bewitched the populace into naming her their ruler. None of the warlords would dare to contend with the spirits she summoned, and so they would not fight against her. While peace was restored, the Witch-Queen became engrossed in her magic and withdrew from courtly affairs. It was as if the land had no ruler.”
In the time of the Witch-Queen many fiefdoms joined and new kingdoms arose. They waited for the day when the spirits would turn on the Witch-Queen.
That day came.
The Rebellions
When it was believed that the Witch-Queen and her descendants had lost the favor of the spirits, the men of Iwai to the North rose against the Yamato in Wa. A powerful governor declared open war against the ruling family, and the army of Yamato went Northward to kill him.
Then they killed him.
While the army was away, a coup was attempted in the capital of Yamato. The Emperor had recently died and he had declared his third son to be his successor. His name was Shiraka, and he was the least loved of his mother’s children. The favorite was his brother, Hoshikawa, who was the middle child.
Hoshikawa’s mother was displeased that her husband had named her least favorite son the emperor, and so she told Hoshikawa to steal the treasury and use it to purchase the throne.
So Hoshikawa locked himself in the treasury room and fortified it with his retainers. Shiraka’s men burned them alive.
Thus, Shiraka became Emperor Seinei.
Armament and Disarmament
Emperor Seinei was alarmed by the recent rebellions and chose to increase his military forces. He also became wary of plots against him. He ruthlessly put down suspected conspirators against him.
When he was confident that his hold over his own lands was secure, his distrust would not abate. He worried that plots on the mainland were being hatched to overthrow him. He could not tolerate the threat of a force greater than he coming to the islands.
It was for this reason that Emperor Seinei built a navy and invaded the land of shipbuilders. They landed and they were invited to occupy the coastal city of Pyongyang, whose rulers had allied with Yamato in order to hold off the alliance of greater powers to the north.
The northern alliance then marched on Pyongyang. Meanwhile, allied navies from the south came northward. The navies of the southern alliance destroyed the navy of Yamato. Then the armies of the northern alliance besieged Pyongyang. They took the city, and the army of Seinei was ended.
The Plague
It was during this time that plague came to the islands. Many sacrifices were made to the gods to end the plague, but they went unnoticed. The shipbuilders who worked in the northern forests began speaking of a foreign prophet called The Budo.
The shipbuilders spoke that the plague had arisen from the people’s infidelity to the path of The Budo. They spoke that the only escape from misery and death would be to return to the Way. They spoke to many men of the north.
They were heard by Umako of the Soga clan. He was a powerful warlord in the North and had grown distrustful of the old gods. He embraced the eight paths.
He was met by Moriya of the Mononobe clan, who believed that infidelity to the old gods would worsen the plague.
The two men brought their clans to battle at Shigi. The Mononobe charged, and the Soga were driven back. Then the Mononobe charged a second time, and the Soga were driven back. Then the Mononobe prepared a third charge.
When Lord Umako saw the preparation he declared that he would build a temple to the Four Kings of Heaven if his men emerged victoriously. His men were invigorated by this and stood against the charge.
During the third charge, a Soga archer stood on a hill behind the line and fired at Moriya of the Mononobe. He aimed well.
The Mononobe forces routed and the first shrines of The Budo were constructed on the mount. This victory began to sway the northern men to his teachings.
The Isshi Plot
The men of Yamato grew to dislike the Soga of the north who had brought the foreign prophet’s teachings to their island. So they hatched a plot to end the foreign influence.
Here is what they did.
The prince of the Soga clan was invited to the palace at Yamato where he would take part in court ceremonies. While the prince was in attendance of history reading for the empress, the doors to the reading hall were sealed and the guards were bribed. The Soga prince was then cut down by attendees with hidden weapons.
The prince did not die. He was still alive and he begged the empress for asylum. She retired to consider the matter. The attendees killed him when she left.
The clanlord of the Soga heard of his son’s death and responded by setting fire to himself and all the treasures of the clan. Thus ended the line of the Soga.
The Shipbuilders
Shortly thereafter, the shipbuilders across the water split into three: the Silla, the Baekje, and the Goguryeo. Each wanted control of their peninsula.
The Baekje were the smallest and most ambitious of the three. They allied with the Yamato and invited their army to conquer the other two kingdoms for them.
The Silla were the middle power and they were wary of an intervention from the island men. To this end, they allied themselves with the Tang, who were the rulers of China.
The Goguryeo were the largest and most powerful of the three, and the other two would not challenge them. Nor could the Tang conquer them.
The Tang had conquered China and wanted to control the nations of shipbuilders. They could do this if they defeated the Goguryeo. Yet they could not defeat them. The Tang rulers believed that they might succeed if they attacked the Goguryeo from the south and the north. To this end, they allied with the Silla in the south and conspired to end the Baekje. They would then use those captured lands to overtake the Goguryeo kingdom.
The Tang sent a force to destroy the Baekje, and the Yamato sent a force to relieve them. Thus, the Battle of Baekgang began.
The Battle of Baekgang
When the Battle of Baekgang began, the capital of Baekje was Churyu and it was under siege by the Silla. There was a river next to the city and it was blockaded by the Tang navy. The capital was surrounded and reinforcements could not reach it.
The Yamato navy attempted to break the tang blockade and were rebuked harshly.
A larger Yamato navy returned to break the Tang blockade. The river was narrow and their numbers were hampering. The Tang rebuked them three more times.
The Yamato fleet was demoralized and the Tang made their counterattack. The Tang navy cut through the Yamato and ruined them.
The besieged Baekje, seeing the failure of their Yamato reinforcements, surrendered to the Silla.
The remaining Yamato returned home and reinforced the coastline in fear of a Tang invasion.
The Goguryeo fell alter that year.
The Falcon People
When the threat of Tang had subsided, the Yamato fought with the falcon-men of the southern islands. They suppressed them.
Temporarily.
The falcon-men, who called themselves the Hayato, capitulated to the Yamato army.
Then the army left.
They they revolted.
When the Hayato revolted they killed the governor of Satsuma province and garrisoned themselves within seven castles.
The court in Yamato was frustrated by this. Therefore, they raised a great horde and surrounded the forretresses. The horde destroyed five and then two more.
Thus, the forces of Hayato were stopped.
The court in Yamato punished the remaining falcon-men and ended the potential for future threats in this way: they forced the inhabitants of the southern islands to farm rice in volcanic soil.
The Rebellions II
Shortly thereafter, a plague ruined Japan. This plague killed many aristocrats in the Yamato court. Several of these were of the Fujiwara clan, and the remaining members lost influence. One of these was Hirotsugu and he was assigned to govern the lands of the Hayato in the city of Dazaifu.
Hirotsugu was insulted and raised an army of resentful southerners in open rebellion against the Emperor. The Emperor responded by ordering the construction of a religious temple in the south, he raised taxes in the south to do this.
Hirotsugu’s army quintupled in size. Then they came near the capital. The court at Yamato sent its army against Hirotsugu. It was the weaker force.
Hirotsugu was bitter and sought to destroy the opposing army utterly. To that end, he split his army in three parts. Each part was to approach the enemy from a different direction and surround them.
One-third of the army followed a wrong path and got lost. Then the Yamato army attacked Hirotsugu’s third, and it quickly capitulated. The third part of his army arrived afterward and saw how things had gone awry. They surrendered.
Thus, Yamato had emerged victorious.
Later, Nakamaro of the Fujiwara became a powerful warlord in his own right. At that time, the Empress was becoming active in politics and became a threat. He decided to overthrow her.
Nakamaro made his sons the heads of the palace guards. He also placed them on state councils. He himself began to control the military in the capital and surrounding regions. Then he attempted his coup.
The empress had been forewarned by a haruspex who had heard the plot in passing, and the coup was unsuccessful. Nakamaro fled the capital and the empress had blocked the roads. Then he sought assistance from other clanlords. They sided with the empress. Nakamaro and his army were surrounded by enemies in open land with nowhere to flee and with no allies.
His head was later sent to the empress.
The Fujiwara did not attempt another rebellion.
The Others
Many years passed, and a strange people emerged from the forests in the north of the greatest island. They were hairy and dirty men who rode horses and fired small bows.
Their origins were unknown, but they were thought to have assisted in the Yamato attacks against the shipbuilders.
They skirmished with the Yamato army, and their mounted archers were often victorious against the slow-moving infantry of the Yamato court. They believed they could not lose to Yamato.
The hairy horsemen decided to siege a fortress held by the northern Yamato. The siege failed, and the horselord was taken captive. This enraged the remaining horsemen who moved their horde southward.
Fort thirty-eight years the horsemen fought with the Yamato, and they had great success in destroying the Yamato fortifications. Then, the Yamato raised a large army of their own and thought to meet the horsemen in a mountain pass.
The horsemen escaped the pass and massacred them. The men of Yamato were heavily armored and could not flee the arrows.
Then, a new army was sent by the Yamato against the horsemen. This army was massacred by a raiding party as it attempted to cross a river.
The Yamato were in dire straits when one lord of the horsemen turned on the others and strove to claim all the lands they had conquered for himself. Hir own force was massive and the Emishi were in civil war. The Yamato then sent a final army northward and finished the northern threat.
The First Nine Years War
When the Emishi of the north had been quelled their lands were administered by the men of the Abe clan. These men mixed with the northerners and came to resent the power to the south.
The southern court became wary of the resentment of the Abe. They became wary of the growing power of the horsemen. And the fur-men were seen heading southward once more. They sent a governor northward to pacify these people.
The Abe rebelled again and the governor who was sent, and the northmen declared open war against the southerners once more.
The court at Kyoto sent an army northward and it was led by men of the Minamoto clan.
They skirmished with the northerners for many years and were disadvantaged by rough terrain.
The Minamoto clan chose to besiege the Abe fortress at Kuriyagawa because they could not match the quicker northmen in the field. They surrounded the fortress while the prince of the Abe was inside, and the prince surrendered. Thus, the war had been quelled.
This was how the Minamoto came to prominence.
While returning southward, the leader of the Minamoto thought to stroll in a wooded area. Here, a rival clanlord set an ambush to assassinate him. However, the Lord of Minamoto saw birds fly from the place where the ambush had been set and circled about to meet them. He succeeded and returned to his stroll.
The Rebellions III
Several years later, the emperor of Japan had died and two sons claimed the throne. They were weak rulers and each one was a pawn of the Fujiwara clan.
The two sons answered to two different Fujiwara warlords, and only one could become emperor. The two warlords of the Fujiwara fought against one another to ensure that their claimant would ascend.
To that end, the two men of the Fujiwara each asked for help from two other clans: the Minamoto and the Taira.
Men of the Minamoto and the Taira clans fought for both sides and became enemies.
Several years later, the Minamoto and Taira would war against each other again. The outcome of this was that all the rulers of the Minamoto were exiled or killed. Three survived. Their names were Yoritomo, Noriyori, and Yoshitsune.
The Childhood of Yoshitsune
Yoshitsune was originally named Ushikawa and he plotted for revenge against the Taira from the moment they had declared their victory. From childhood into adulthood, he trained in martial arts deep in forested regions for hours at night in preparation for the day when he would strike out at them.
One night, he went training at the foot of Mount Kurama. He went there to train in secret because he knew that he would not be followed; a local legend said that the mountain was haunted by the giant vampire Tengu. The legend was true.
When the Tengu saw Ushikawa training at the base of the mount, it descended from its cave and interrogated the boy that had come to train in the forest below. Ushikawa told the Tengu that he was training for revenge against the Taira.
The Tengu pondered for a moment. On one hand, it could eat this boy and be done with it; but on the other hand, the boy might be a useful tool against the Taira, whom the Tengu had disliked itself. The Tengu offered Ushikawa a choice.
The choice was this: the boy could return to the mount every night to learn the dark sorcery of the Tengu for use against the Taira, or the Tengu would eat him. Ushikawa made the obvious decision.
So Ushikawa returned to the mount every night and learned sorcery, martial arts, and military science at the school of the Tengu. When he had learned all that they had to teach, he left to fight the Taira.
Minamoto Yorimitsu
Of the various generals who would come to serve the Minamoto triumvirate, the greatest was Yorimitsu, who Pacified the Ogres.
While in service to the Minamoto, Yorimitsu and his four lieutenants traveled to a mountain that was thought to be filled by ogres. As they approached, they heard loud rumblings coming from the gap between the mountain and the forest beside it. So Yorimitsu and his men hid behind a rock to observe, and they saw an ogre appear.
The ogre stood twice as tall as a human adult, and its skin was red. It had the face of a juvenile human, and there were enormous muscles throughout the entirety of its body. It had a hunched back and large fangs that hung over its lips. It was carrying a large sack over its back, and it was not alone. They entered a hole in the side of the mountain.
Yorimitsu knew that these ogres were the source of the region’s troubles and that he and his men were unable to confront them in headlong confrontation, yet the ogres could not remain as they were. To that end, he and his men disguised themselves as priests and entered the ogre lair with threats of exorcism.
The ogres in the lair were unhappy to share their lair with priests, but some had done so before and discouraged the others from aggressing against those who might rebuke them with holy magic, so hey opted to disregard the priests. With that, Yorimitsu and his men were safely inside the lair..
While the five were being ignored, the ogres spent the night working themselves into a drunken stupor and each one of them lost consciousness. It was at this point that Yorimitsu and his men left and retrieved the weapons they had left outside. They promptly returned and decapitated each drunken ogre while the others were asleep.
This is how the last of the ogres were killed.
The Minamoto and the Taira
Time passed and the children of Minamoto grew to adulthood. During this time, a cousin of the Minamoto fought against the Taira in support of a new claimant to the imperial throne. He and the men loyal to him were defeated, and the Taira set about exterminating the Minamoto clan.
To this end, they entered the lands of Nara, where Minamoto had lived, and burned many temples and warrior monks.
The Taira then moved to Kamakura where Yoritomo was located, and moved against his encampment. The Minamoto were outnumbered ten-to-one and surrounded. Yoritomo survived this battle by hiding in a hollow tree. He then found help among the sea-folk.
The sea-folk brought Yoritomo to may allies, and they returned to the Taira who were encamped near Kamakura and surprised them. Thus, the Taire fled form Kamakura.
A part of Yoritomo’s army then followed the retreating Taira, but they crossed a river and, being caught wet, were killed shortly.
Later, another army of Taira attacked Yoshinaka’s fortress in the west. The defenders were unassailable, but a traitor let the Taira in and the fortress was lost. Yoshinaka and his men escaped by sea.
Fro two years the Taira suffered from famine, and they could not support a large army. The war was still meanwhile. Yoshinaka used the time to gather reinforcements. He returned to Taira lands when the famine had subsided and lived off them.
The Taira moved against the Minamoto and entered a mountain pass that overlooked Yoshinaka’s army. They looked down at the force and saw many white banners that signaled the size of their foe. They chose to rest in the high places of the pass before assaulting the Minamoto.
Yoshinaka did not have many men, and his banners were a ruse. While the Taira were resting, he divided his army in three. The first third would sneak upon the Taira from the far side. The second third would conceal themselves beneath the pass and wait. The third part was led by Yoshinaka and confronted the Taira directly.
When Yoshinaka’s army approached the Taira, he issued a challenge to their Greatest 100. The strongest warriors of the Taira would fight the strongest warriors of the Minamoto and gain honor for their victory in song and tale. Many of the Taira were proud and accepted the challenge.
While this was happening, Yoshinaka’s armies positioned themselves around the Taira who had confined themselves within the mountain pass.
As night fell, the rearguard of the Taira saw many banners approaching them from their rear. They discerned Yoshinaka’s ruse and they turned to face the approaching army.
It was then that Yoshinaka revealed his true plan. He had studied the Master and knew the following act: while the Taira had turned away from him, his men revealed a herd of secret oxen that they had led to the pass. They then lit the oxens’ horns ablaze and sent them charging against the distracted Taira. Many Taira were knocked from the pass and killed by the army below. Those who remained were startled, surrounded, and slaughtered. This is how the Minamoto won at Kurikara and the Taira declined.
The taira who had retreated were chased and shot full of arrows.
The Taira were severely weakened at Kurikara, and the Minamoto pressed forward against the Taira stronghold of Fukuryuji and took it. Elsewhere, the Taira had raised five small armies and converged upon a Minamoto force that they surrounded and destroyed.
Yoshinaka was proud of his accomplishments and decided that he should lead the Minamoto. Yoshitsune and Yoritomo did not acknowledge this claim. So Yoshinaka besieged the forretress of Hojujidono where the emperor was staying. His siege was successful and he captured the emperor.
Yoshitsune and Yoritomo then approached with much larger armies and Yoshinaka flew. Yoshitsune chased him across the bridge and slew him with an arrow where the war began. That is how Yoshitsune became the leader of the Minamoto.
Yoshitsune then led the Minamoto against the Taira fort of Ichi-no-Tani. It was perfect.
The defenders were not.
The fort was perfect. That is why no attacker could take it. That is why no attacker tried to take it. That is why the defenders did not defend it. That is why the fort was defenseless when Yoshitsune attacked. That is why the Taira leaders died. That is why the Taira warriors died. That is why the Taira clan would die.
Some Taira escaped from Ichi-no-Tani and went to their island forretress at Yashima.
Yoshitsune followed them there.
When Yoshitsune arrived at Yashima, he lit many bonfires far from Taira fort. The Taira saw these fires and believed that a large army was heading for them. They abandoned their position and escaped with their navy.
Yoshitsune had anticipated this and the navy was intercepted by his larger navy. The Taira were surprised and many ships defected to the Minamoto clan. The remaining Taira fought and their child emperor was killed in the process. Thus, the influence of the Taira ended.
When the emperor Antoku was killed the sword and jewel of Jimmu were lost at sea. The line of emperors was finished, and new rule was needed.
So Yoshitsune established the Shogunate.
Benkei
Yoshitsune did many renowned things, yet he was not so great. Benkei was. And it was to him that the Minamoto success was due.
Benkei was a monk and warrior. He stood taller than the largest horses, bore a profound knowledge of the sitter’s scriptures and could defeat dozens of men in combat with any of his seven weapons. He was best loved by his friends for his practical jokes.
Benkei was the son of a demon and a human. He was conflicted by this and strove to absolve himself of his wickedness. To that end, he wandered the land seeking out wicked samurai and shaming them in single combat. He defeated 999 opponents this way.
He came upon Yoshitsune, who had behaved disgracefully by killing his brother and sought to chastise him.
When Benkei dueled with Yoshitsune he saw in the eye of the child that the Minamoto child was not the fool whom Benkei had predicted. So the monk surrendered and offered his service to the child as an act of penitence.
So it was that Benkei accompanied Yoshitsune wherever he went from that day onward. He provided sound counsel at every battle, devised many stratagems, and served as Yoshitsune’s greatest bodyguard. He died at Koromogawa defending Yoshitsune when Yoritomo turned on him.
The manner of his death was this: he stood on a bridge between Yoshitsune and the enemy; while there, he wielded a massive stave and knocked hundreds of men from the bridge as they charged at him. This continued until the only attackers left were Yoritomo’s archer, and they fired at Benkei until he could no longer feel pain.
And so Benkei discovered acupuncture.
The Mongols
One hundred years after Yoshitsune established the shogunate, the Mongols united and formed a great power. The horsemen had conquered all of the lands of the east and the shogunate was the last power to resist them. They had conscripted the shipbuilders to build powerful fleets, and their great khan had set his sight on Japan.
He resolved to vassalize the nation.
Now the emperor at this time was Kameyama, and he was the ninetieth descendant of Jimmu. He had heard of the khan across the narrow sea and received an envoy from the mainland who had come with a message from him, whose name was Kublai. This envoy was of those shipbuilders who had once been subjects of the imperial family, and he was distrusted by the court.
The message was this, “The Mongol emperor wishes you to know that he is kindly disposed to you and wishes to enter friendly discourse with your country. It is for this reason that we kindly ask for you to accept out fleet into your western harbors for an amicable reception.”
The emperor saw through the Mongolic facade and returned the envoy. His advisor Tokisuke opposed this and said, “The willow tree lives long because it bends to the wind,” which Kameyama met with “The willow may live, but it must eternally weep, for it must always be pressed upon by the wind.” He was supported by the Hojo in this, and their leader was made the head of the military. Japan would not be subdued.
Kublai was infuriated by the emperor’s resistance. How could this tiny island nation resist him, the emperor of the whole world? He devised a plan to ruin their land.
The Mongols landed in Kyushu in the south and met a large shogunate army.
They failed to establish a beachhead and returned to their ships. During their retreat, they pillaged the country and destroyed many shrines. One such shrine belonged to the storm god Susa and, that night, he raised his lighting sword to the heavens and mustered a typhoon that destroyed the embarked Mongol army. Thus, the remnants returned to Korea.
When the men of the shogunate surveyed the charred bodies left behind they found many archers without arrows and strange devices that breathed fire. They brought these to the capital for review.
The Mongols returned ten years later. This time a larger typhoon destroyed their navy before it had landed. Then they landed.
The army of the shogunate repulsed the remnants of the Mongol army immediately and burned their fleet. Thus, the second invasion had been thwarted. The Mongols did not return.
The second navy was much larger. The second army was much larger. The second typhoon was much larger. The Japanese called this typhoon the Divine Wind and knew it as Kamikaze.
The End of the Shogunate
Fifty years after the Mongols were repulsed, several clanlords enjoined to depose the Hojo who controlled the shogunate.
The Lord of the Hojo learned of the plot against him and sent agents to burn the temple at Kasagi where the emperor was raising an army to oppose him. It burned.
The Lord of the Hojo then sent his armies to destroy the castle at Akasaka where another army was being raised against him. The defenders were led by Masahige, who was a skilled tactician. The Hojo could not break the castle.
The Hojo could not drive out the defenders with force, so they found the water supply and destroyed it. Masahige could not defend against thirst, and he surrendered the castle. Then he escaped to the castle at the summit of Chihaya.
The shogunate army followed him to Chihaya. The castle was at the top of a tall mountain, the mountain terrain was rough, and the Hojo army outnumbered the defenders fifty-to-one. They surrounded the hill and moved upward.
The Hojo commander was competent in siegecraft. So was Masahige. The Hojo had the advantage of supplies. Masahige had the advantage of defense. The Hojo had superior numbers. Masahige had superior positioning. The Hojo could retreat. Masahige could not. Masahige won.
The defeat of the Hojo forces here inspired other clanlords to rise against them. The Hojo were spread thin and lost several battles. Their enemies surrounded them at Kamakura.
When Kamakura was besieged the Hojo did not have the strength left to defend it. They swarmed the city, and the remaining members of the Hojo clan ended the clan in a ceremony in their family shrine.
The emperor returned to power in Japan. He was quickly deposed by his ally, Takauji, who established the Ashikaga Shogunate.
Power & Legitimacy
When the emperor was deposed, he went southward to the island of Kyushu and raised an army against Takauji. So the shogun sent his army southward, and the rebels escaped to the hills. This was the beginning of the Nanboku-cho Wars.
In the north, the Ashikaga had been defeated, and Takauji moved to Kyushu. Here, he built a new army. When the Ashikaga had moved southward, the emperor returned to Kyoto.
The emperor then ordered Yoshisada to send an army southward to end the growing Ashikaga threat. Yoshisada resisted this command and argued that they permit the Ashikaga to take the city and then besiege them. The emperor was alarmed by this and gave his order a second time. This is why Yoshisada went southward to confront the approaching Ashikaga.
When Yoshisada saw Takauji approaching, he ordered his men to fortify one side of a river near the coast. The Ashikaga were on the other side and would need to cross.
When the Ashikaga crossed, their navy ferried men along the coast to encircle Yoshisada and was unhindered. The defenders were ruined.
Yoshisada returned to Kyoto to defend it.
It could not be defended.
Yoshisada and the emperor fled and the Ashikaga entered the city.
One year later, the last stronghold of Yoshisada would be taken, and the Ashikaga shogunate would resume.
One year later, Yoshisada would attempt to retake the fort. He failed and was killed by an arrow.
One year later, the brother of Yoshisada would take the fort as Kuromaru. Here he found the helmet of Yoshisada and built a shrine for it.
The shogunate would fight and win many more wars with the emperor’s men.
The Brothers
The Ashikaga enjoyed fighting and were disappointed when there were no more enemies. So the shogun declared war on his brother who was usurping him..
The brother, whose name was Tadayoshi, went to the emperor’s men with the armies that disliked the shogun’s rule. He returned to Kyoto and deposed his brother. Then he killed his brother’s advisors who had driven him away.
Tadayoshi followed Takauji to Sattayama where they reconciled. Then he died.
The armies who had followed Tadayoshi swore allegiance to the emperor and revitalized his army.
Takauji had been a poor ruler and it was rumored that he had poisoned his brother to maintain power. His subjects rebelled on him. This began the Onin War.
The Onin War
When the shogun was near death, he had no children. So he requested that his brother be the heir to the shogunate. His brother accepted. Then the shogun had a son. The question of succession worsened.
There was conflict between those who sided with the son and those who sided with the brother. The greatest of the brother’s allies was the Hosokawa clan, and the Hosokawa had been despised by the Yamana clan. The Yamana used the succession as a pretext to war against the Hosokawa.
Many lords chose sides.
The eastern Yamana attacked first and burned a Hosokawa mansion. The Hosokawa reciprocated. The two clans chased one another throughout Honshu and many battles were fought. The Yamana burned where they went and the Hosokawa followed them through cinders. Hence the Yamana were called rebels and the Hosokawa became popular.
While this was happening, the elderly shogun busied himself with his hobbies. The peasantry despised his inaction and the wars his succession brought, so they became the Ikki and were in open revolt against all but themselves and the monks.
When the most powerful clans supporting the shogun had exhausted themselves, and when the successor to the shogunate was uncertain, and when the peasantry was in open revolt, and when the country had been scorched, and when Kyoto was destroyed the shogunate ended and a long civil war began. This was the Sengoku Jidai.
Warring States-Hojo Clan
The Hojo clan resurged during the Sengoku Jidai and they declared their power by taking the castle at Arai.
Then they bribed a retainer of the Uesugi and captured a village of fishermen.
The Hojo then retook the capital of Kamakura, which they had lost many years before. The Uesugi drove them from it.
The Hojo and Uesugi then traded the castle at Musashi many times. The Hojo would later keep it.
Years later, Uesugi raised a huge army to end the Hojo at the castle of Kawagoe. The Hojo were outnumbered thirty-to-one. This made the Uesugi careless. They wasted time and Takoya’s Students infiltrated their camp.
More Hojo arrived to break the siege.
They approached the Uesugi force which turned its back to face them. The Hojo in the castle then sallied forth unarmored and quick and massacred the Uesugi. The Hojo won, and the Uesugi were broken.
Uesugi Kenshin then led an army to burn the Hojo palace at Odawara and failed after many prior victories.
The Hojo were then distracted by the Ashikaga and Satomi.
Takeda Shingen turned on the Hojo and besieged the castle at Hachigata. He failed. Then he tried to destroy the Hojo at Odawara. He failed here too. He retreated and was hassled by Hojo on the way. His son took a Hojo castle in retaliation
Takeda Shingen then attacked the Hojo six times in Fukazawa and took it. Then the Hojo destroyed his navy.
Shortly thereafter, the Oda clanlord died and the Hojo responded by taking land from his retainer, who fled.
While the Hojo were in the east, Hideyoshi had united the west under his rule. He took the castle at Hachigata. His general then approached Odawara and it surrendered.
The Floating-men of the Hojo surrendered soon afterward.
Warring States-Takeda Clan
In this time, there was a clan called the Takeda, and they were descendants of the legendary warrior Minamoto Toshitsune. The leader of this clan was Shingen, and he was more alike to Yoshitsune than any member who had come before. He brought these things.
Shingen was first Harunobu and he followed his father to besiege and Hojo at Un no Kuchi. His father failed, and the Takeda retreated. Harunobu was in the rearguard and saw the Hojo relax. So he turned around and threw the rear at the garrison. They were startled and the castle was lost.
Shingen was given an army and brought it against four rival clans and defeated them at once. This emptied the province of Shinano of its defenders and shingen pressed his advantage. He took a castle there. Then he took another one. Then he took another one. Then he took another one. Then he took another on. Then he took five more.
Meanwhile, a northern army was heading south to prevent Shingen’s conquest. It was led by the descendants of those who had surveyed the mongols, and they burned the Takeda soldiers. During this battle, Shingen and his men were upset by the sound of cloudless thunder and hesitated. Their casualties were great and Shingen was speared through the side on his retreat.
He later returned to the thunderers and slew them at rest. Then he added six more castles to his collection.
The lords whom Shingen had deposed fled Shinano and returned with an army led by the Uesugi clan. They approached the Takeda after Shinano had been suppressed and tried to drive the Takeda out of Kawanakajima.
The Uesugi met the Takeda on a plain and were evenly matched. The Takeda withdrew to a castle and hoped to lure the Uesugi into a painful siege.The lure succeeded. When the Uesugi broke their siege, the Takeda pursued them and were pushed back.
The Uesugi then besieged a lost fortress and were pursued by the Takeda men. They turned to face Shingen, and both sides waited for the other to lose an advantage. During this time, the peasantry under each clan revolted and the armies returned to their home provinces.
The Takeda returned to battle first and destroyed an Uesugi castle that was isolated in the mountains. They did this when the mountain passes were frozen and reinforcements could not assist the defenders. The effect of this was that the Uesugi lost their control of the passes on the border of Shinano. The Takeda were forced to abandon the pass shortly afterward when the snow-maiden arrived.
The Uesugi were enraged and retaliated against the Takeda strongly. First, the lord of the Uesugi seized a castle that Shingen had forgotten. The Takeda army moved to face them the next day.
When they met, neither side could suppress the other and so the Takeda were permitted to enter the castle at Kaizu. While at Kaizu, Shingen formulated a plan for defeating Kenshin.
Shingen divided his army in two parts. One part was meant to corral the Uesugi into the valley, where the second part would ambush them. The Uesugi learned this plan and met the ambuscade when it arrived. The Uesugi charged down the mountain..
When the Uesugi charged, the Takeda took up a defensive position. Their defense was sturdy, although many Takeda leaders were killed and the men were demoralized. Kenshin made his way to the command tent and threw himself at Shingen. Shingen escaped and Kenshin survived.
Then a thing happened that the Uesugi had not prepared for. A secret army of the Takeda had hidden in the mountain passes behind them and had grown impatient for the battle to end. They were meant to pursue the Uesugi who would retreat, but they had been disappointed thus far. So they assaulted the rear of the Uesugi and frightened them with their sudden appearance. The Uesugi men, having lost sight of their general and having been surrounded, began to retreat. The Takeda did not pursue them. By this time both armies had been reduced by two-thirds.
Later, Shingen assisted the Hojo clan in retaking a castle from the Uesugi. Then he took two more castles from the Uesugi.
The Takeda were content with the results of their feud with the Uesugi and turned against the Hojo. They caused mischief throughout their lands and accomplished little.
Shingen then moved his army farther east where he had not yet been. There he encountered Ieyasu and Nobunaga. He destroyed Ieyasu’s army of gunners and took several castles from him.
Shingen pursued the Tokugawa to the fortress of Noda and took it. It was here that Shingen was shot with an arrow. He died shortly thereafter.
When Ieyasu heard of Shingen’s death, he threw his remaining armies against the Takeda and destroyed their army at Nagashino. When this happened, every clan in Japan turned against the Takeda.
The Takeda proceeded to lose everything that Shingen had gained. The last 43 fell at Toriibata.
Warring States-Tokugawa Clan
The greatest of the Tokugawa was Ieyasu and his name was first Matsudaira Motoyasu. He went on to found his own shogunate, and these battles preceded it.
The first battle of Motoyasu was a siege in which the warlord Nobunaga had attacked a castle of the Imegawa. Motoyasu commended the garrison and was overrun.
He then traveled to the Oda castle at Marune and bombarded its walls until it fell.
Nobunaga brought a small army to confront the Imegawa and saw that they were outnumbered. So he snuck through a forest behind the encampment where the Imagawa were celebrating a recent victory. At the forest end, he prayed for a thunderstorm to drown out the thunderers of the Imegawa and was heard. When the defenders’ spirit had dampened, his men flooded into the Imegawa encampment and drowned the commander in rage. That is how the Oda replaced them.
Motoyasu escaped the torrent and wandered the Ikki province where he rebuilt an army. He did this by challenging warriors to single combat and by accomplishing brave feats. Thus, he attracted followers. One of these was Hanzo. LAter, Motoyasu changed his name to Ieyasu and joined the Tokugawa.
When the Azai clan became powerful, the Oda were threatened and received the help of the Tokugawa, from whom they learned gunsmithing. They then attacked the Azai near a lake and many samurai warriors fought in single combat. The Azai were chastised for their strength.
At this time the Takeda had pacified the west and came for the Tokugawa in the east. They fought with Ieyasu many times and nearly broke his strength.
The Tokugawa and Oda corralled the Takeda at Nagashino and planned to destroy them. They succeeded. They did this by fortifying their position along a river opposite the Takeda force. While there, they built a wooden wall of many sharpened stakes. Then their gunmen fired over the stakes and across the river at the Takeda army. The distance was great and many gunmen missed. The noise was also great and the Takeda knew that a battle had begun.
Thus, the Takeda charged across the river without preparing. When they did this, they were slowed by the water and brought themselves in range. The gunmen no longer missed. The Takeda who crossed could not break the palisade and were lost.
The remaining Takeda were pursued and destroyed.
When the Takeda were destroyed there was one major clan left, and it was the Hideyoshi. They were equal in power to the others and farthest to the east. They had recently enjoyed a successful alliance with the Oda and offered them a reward. Some of the Oda were skeptical of the Hideyoshi and refused them. The clanlord of the Hideyoshi then pardoned the offenders.
When the Hideyoshi pardoned the Oda officers, the Oda believed that there was a conspiracy between them and the Hideyoshi. So the officers were killed. This offended the Hideyoshi who then attacked the Oda in Owari.
The lord of the Hideyoshi was Hashiba and when he entered Owari, many of Oda’s men defected to him. This is how he captured several castles.
Ieyasu left to defend the east from the Hideyoshi and overran one of their border-castles. Then they increased its defenses. Hashiba’s men arrived to besiege it when a spy told them that Ieyasu had left or a distant settlement. Hashiba believed him and left the castle to pursue Ieyasu.
While the Hideyoshi army was away, Ieyasu left the castle and destroyed several of the client clans of the Hideyoshi. Then the Hideyoshi destroyed several client clans of the Tokugawa.
By this time, Hashiba learned of the real location of Ieyasu. He went there. Then Ieyasu left and Hashiba followed him. They did this several times. Hashiba grew tired and returned home content with having destroyed several Tokugawa allies.
Hashiba was impressed by Ieyasu’s deception of him and knew that all warfare was based on deception, so he offered to make Ieyasu his top general. The Tokugawa had lost their allies during the war with and Ieyasu accepted. The Hideyoshi would lament this.
Warring States-Shimazu Clan
The Shimazu were a lesser clan of descendants of Yoshitsune and they began this period in civil war. The war ended when Tadayoshi had killed the other clan heads and their vassals.
When Tadayoshi had suppressed the other claimants he drove the East-Comers from their fortress on the coast and took their guns.
The Shimazu proceeded to absorb several smaller clans within the Satsuma province.
After growing, Tadayoshi thought to make himself known by driving out the East-Comers to the north and their vassals. They were disliked by the islanders for their reverence of the bleeding man and hostility toward the monks, and Tadayoshi thought that he could rally more men to his cause by declaring himself the defender of the Budo.
The Shimazu lured the orange men from their stronghold and ambushed them. They captured the fortress at Mimigawa and found the province destroyer.
Afterward, the Shimazu fought against several of the East-Comers’ clients and ruined them too.
The Hideyoshi to the north eventually came for the Shimazu at Kyushu and absorbed them.
Warring States-Mori Clan
When the Ashikaga shogunate fell, some clans tried to restore it. The Mori were one of these. They were close to the Takeda in Aki.
The Mori began this period by assaulting a Takeda castle ot the south. The defenders outnumbered the Mori and sallied to meet them. They were tired when they arrived, and the Mori defeated them while outnumbered. The castle was undefended when the Mori arrived.
The nearby Amago were allies with the Takeda and conspired to retake the castle. The Amago clanlord advised against the attack, but he was called cowardly by his retainers, and so he pressed forward. His siege lasted many months and destroyed his treasury before it failed.
Later, a coup was launched against the lord clan of the Mori, and they remained loyal. The Mori clan attacked the Sue clan, which had been victorious in their coup, and won. Thus, they acquired all the lands of their previous lords and became powerful.
All of this happened on an island, and the Sue had territory on the mainland. The mainland Sue seized a castle between the island and the mainland, and it was on an island that was the home of many spirits.
The Mori took advantage of the Sue absence from their home to take their castle on the mainland. Then he hired the local pirates to besiege the island castle which the Sue now occupied. The Mori lord, his sons, and his pirates surrounded the castle when the fog was thick and rushed in while the defenders were unprepared.
The Sue were defeated and the Mori became famous throughout Japan.
The East-Comers would later arrive on their ships and bombard the castle, but they would leave spent.
The Mori proceeded to struggle in many wars against the southern clans for control of Kyushu before turning to face the powers of the east.
The first of these was Oda Nobunaga, who he made his way into the west in pursuit of the Takeda and found himself in conflict with the Ikki mobs. The Mori assisted the Ikki against Nobunaga and his brutality by supplying them with guns, strategists, and navies. Mori expertise was able to repulse the Oda gunmen in the first onslaught, but their skill failed in the second when the Oda brought the six most powerful ships yet seen in Japan and crushed the Mori navy. The Mori discovered the secret weakness of the Oda navy before the end.
When the second attack had ended, the Oda had been weakened in their home provinces and left to recover.
When the Oda retreated the Mori attacked their rearguard forts and took them. When they did this, one Oda general bartered the life of his lord in exchange for the safe surrender of his own men.
Hideyoshi then brought his armies to the Mori frontier and took a large castle by starving its defenders. The defenders who managed to escape despaired to find that all the food in the province had been purchased by the Hideyoshi army.
Hideyoshi made his way further into the lands of the Mori and took the castle at Takamatsu. Nobunaga was assassinated in his capital and Hideyoshi turned back to avenge him. The Mori were spared from further conquest.
Warring States-Nobunaga Clan
The man who would begin the reunification of Japan was Oda Nobunaga and he would not live to see his work finished. THis is what he did before he was assassinated..
First Nobunaga would unify his clan with the help of the Mori by killing each of his challengers in Owari.
Then Nobunaga reinforced a castle that was besieged by Motoyasu and drove him away. Nobunaga chased him to Marune and was repelled.
Nobunaga turned his attention to an Imagawa army further west and snuck up on them. He destroyed the Imegawa, and their men defected to him. One of these was Motoyasu, who joined the Tokugawa clan and changed his name to Ieyasu.
When Nobunaga’s forces were bolstered, he chose to end his long feud with the Saito clan. He approached their home castle on the mountain of Inabayama and many of the Saito men who had grown tired of their clanlord defected. Nobunaga bribed the rest. He proceeded to send ninjs to infiltrate the stronghold, burn its storehouses, and open the gates. His armies stormed uphill and made the castle a base from which to invade Kyoto.
Nobunaga’s plan was distracted when the Azai and their clients moved against him. In response, Nobunaga sent hundreds of gunmen to repel their invasion and Ieyasu defeated them at Anegawa.
After this victory, the Ikki were the last power in the east to oppose the Oda. They did not have a leader and were opposed to all clans. They had fortified many cities and controlled several castles. Nobunaga moved against them.
The Ikki were at war with all clans, and so they did not have allies. They were decentralized, so they did not have clear leadership. They did not build navies, so their supply lines were poor. They did not aggress, so they did not aggravate the clans. Nobunaga conquered the Ikki peasants and let them live.
Many of the Ikki had been led by monks, and the center of monkish power was Mount Hiei. They were outraged at the loss of their influence over the Ikki and ordered that all peasantry throughout Japan should fight against the Oda. Nobunaga surrounded their mountain and killed them all; then he burned everything there. He repeated this at the Ikki stronghold of Nagashima.
The Takeda to the east were enraged by Nobunaga’s treatment of the monks and invaded his western lands. They ran down the defenders that were led by Ieyasu when he could not adapt his gunmen to their cavalry. Then they advanced.
Nobunaga was elsewhere when the Takeda invaded. He quickly destroyed the Azai with whom he was at war and then turned to repel Shingen at Nagashino. At this battle, all the clans of the west joined to repulse the Takeda and were successful when the Takeda cavalry charge was slowed in water.
They destroyed the remnants of the Takeda shortly thereafter.
After the battle at Nagashino, only minor powers were left and Nobunaga was unopposed. This alarmed the Uesugi leader, Kenshin, who betrayed Nobunaga. He hoped to prevent Nobunaga’s growing power. He united the remnants of all the peoples whom Nobunaga had conquered and brought this new army against him.
Kenshin brought his army to meet Nobunaga at the river of Tedorigawa. He knew that the Oda had made prolific use of gunmen and planned for this. He encamped on one side of the river while Nobunaga encamped on the other side. Nobunaga was closer to the river than Kenshin and ordered his gunmen to fire across it. While they did this, Kenshin opened the floodgates and drowned the Oda gunmen. His own army was unaffected because it was far from the river. Kenshin progressed over Nobunaga and was ready to destroy the Oda clan.
Then he died.
Nobunaga then proceeded into western Honshu and subjugated the Mori tacticians with overwhelming might. When he did this all the major clans had been dealt with. He sought out and defeated their remnants.
When Nobunaga set about destroying the last forces of resistance to him, he felt safe in his power for he had no other rivals. That is why he permitted each of his closest retainers to leave him and quell the Honshu populace. One of the lesser noblemen under his command saw that Nobunaga was defenceless and overthrew him.
The daimyo was Mitsuhide and he brought his army into Kyoto with the pretense that he was displaying Nobunaga’s might to the populace. Then Mitsuhide marched on the city’s castle and killed Nobunaga and his sons, who burned the palace in response. Thus, Mitsuhide’s grudge was settled.
Many of the men who had been loyal to Nobunaga rushed back to the capital to avenge him. The first one to return was Hideyoshi, and he was successful. He inherited the lands that Nobunaga had conquered and pacified the warring states.
Warring States-Koka & Iga
During this period, the peoples of the Koka and Iga provinces were ungoverned by clanlords. This drew the contempt of many, and the people of these regions were often the target of invasions by numerically superior forces that were of higher quality than their own. This compelled the inhabitants of these regions to devise new ways of fighting in order to repel the greater armies of their adversaries. \
To this end, the peoples of Iga and Koka developed a style of magical subterfuge and resourcefulness which allowed them to stave off the daimyo. This was the beginning of ninjutsu.
Shortly after the development of ninjutsu, Oda Nobunaga attacked the two provinces and was repelled. The repulsion of Nobunaga from these places discouraged further attacks from other daimyo, and the Ikki here remained independent.
Warring States-Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Hideyoshi was the general who would end the Warring States period and unify Japan. His first battle is unknown, and he first commanded troops at the Battle of the Lake in Anegawa, where Nobunaga and Ieyasu ended the threat presented by the Azai. He proceeded to campaign against the Mori to the west until the Uesugi attacked at Tedori.
When Nobunaga defeated the Takeda, Uesugi Kenshin betrayed him and attacked at Tedorigawa. This is where he drowned the Oda army. Hideyoshi arrived late and, seeing the flooded river, ordered the army’s retreat southward.
When the Uesugi rebelled, the Mori to the west became more vigorous in their campaigns against Nobunaga. Hideyoshi went to suppress these. He could not defeat the Mori navy, nor could he outwit the Mori strategists in the field; it is for these reasons that Hideyoshi fought his wars against them by avoiding open places and by besieging their cities instead. This was a long process, and he eventually starved them out.
Nobunaga was assassinated in Kyoto while Hideyoshi was in the east. He returned to the capital to avenge his lord. He defeated Mitsuhide two weeks later and inherited the empire. Several generals challenged his inheritance and one of them was Ieyasu.
Hideyoshi and Ieyasu brought their armies to Mount Komaki. Here, they brought many lesser clans to fight for them and Hideyoshi’s men arrived first. They attacked Ieyasu and drove them back to the castle at Haguro, which Hideyoshi had built.
One week later, Hideyoshi learned that Ieyasu had left the castle and travelled to a distant province. He brought a section of his army with him to follow Ieyasu to Mikawa.
The army that Hideyoshi had left behind spent several days fighting with the Tokugawa army. They experienced many blunders because their commanders were rash, and they were eventually destroyed.
Hideyoshi rushed back to save the portion of his army that the Tokugawa had ruined and was too late. They chased Ieyasu to a series of castles and failed to catch him. Hideyoshi was exasperated and left when his men had damaged enough of the enemy lands.
The remaining lords of the Oda clan claimed that Hideyoshi was a wrongful inheritor of Nobunaga’s empire, and rebelled against him. Hideyoshi flooded their castles.
The Ikki monks and peasants took advantage of the civil war among Nobunaga’s claimants and held successful rebellions in many provinces. Hideyoshi killed them all.
Hideyoshi’s final steps to reunify Japan were to conquer the isolationists on the outlying islands and to drive the Hojo clan out of its last strongholds.The last of these battles was a siege at Kunohe in the north.
With this done, Japan was unified.
The Imjin Wars
When Japan had been unified, Hideyoshi was unchallenged and his armies were overwhelming. He knew that he could not be defeated and decided to conquer China. In order to do this, he would need a foothold on the mainland. So he ordered an invasion of Korea. His men united in this aim and began the Imjin War.
When the Japanese invaded Korea its army contained the following: well-trained and equipped samurai, lowly spearmen, fine bowmen, and advanced gunners. Its navy was unimpressive. Moreover, Japanese siege weapons were unsophisticated because of its technological stagnation.
The Korean army at the time had been honed by defending against the Khan’s armies. It had fine spearmen and bowmen, poor horsemen, poor swordsmen, and excellent artillery. Moreover, its commanders were used to fighting defensive wars and had reliable communication channels in place throughout their peninsula. They were not, however, numerous people. They had a small number of invincible ships and a heaven-blessed admiral.
The Ming in China had allied with the Goguryeo in Korea and sent small numbers of dependable and varied reinforcements to repel the Japanese. Their crossbows were unique and worked well against the heavily armored samurai of Japan.
Hideyoshi began his invasion by taking all weaponry from the peasants. This would serve as his armory. Then he ordered the Japanese pirates to end their raids on the mainland. These pirates would disrupt his own ships. Then, he invaded Korea where the people believed that his invasion was another pirate attack and did not resist strongly. Those commanders who did see the threat were prevented from acting against it because they were not from the correct families, and their soldiers were caught by surprise because they had been building walls in hidden places when the samurai came.
The Koreans did not fare well against the Japanese. Their archers barely fired before the Japanese infantry closed the gap. Their infantry crumpled before the samurai. Their hand-cannoneers were inferior to the Japanese gunmen. Their cavalry toppled over itself in the rocky terrain. Their fortresses had walls that were too low. Their soldiers had poor spirit. Their commanders had low skill and high birth. They were paper against the Japanese katanas.
The Korean artillery was good. The Koreans had developed a box that shot many rockets into the enemy. It was not enough.
The Japanese army landed at the port city of Busan and killed everyone there while the garrison commander contemplated the best way to respond. Thus, the Goguryeo lost half of their army. Then the Japanese went to a nearby fort and culled it. They did the same at another nearby fort immediately afterward.
The Japanese commanders had hoped that their brutality would compel the Koreans to submit early and allow them to move on to China. They were wrong, and the Korean populace rose against them everywhere for their unprovoked hostility. It was total war.
Meanwhile, the Ming were warring elsewhere and were slow to respond.
The second and third divisions arrived at Busan after eight weeks. They occupied the nearby towns and castles which had been abandoned by the Koreans who had moved northward. The Koreans proceeded to send a token force southward to fight off the Japanese, and it was ambushed and tortured. The Koreans were further demoralized by this, and the Japanese advanced.
The head of the Goguryeo army was Yi, but he had lost favor of the Goguryeo court which then appointed a highborn general named Shin Rip to defend the country. The new general rode out to the mountain pass where Yi was located and displaced Yi’s infantry from it. Then he decided that his cavalry would be ineffective in the mountains. That is why he rode out of the pass and the checkpoint was empty.
When Shin Rip rode out of the pass he moved to a nearby field where he thought his cavalry would be advantaged over the Japanese infantry. The Japanese came to the field and general Shin charged them.
The field was flooded from heavy rains and the Korean cavalry was caught in it. The horses tripped and their riders fell. They were beheaded by the Japanese before they could get up. Then the Japanese moved to the mountain pass and took over its fortifications.
The other Japanese divisions arrived later and moved onto the capital at Heonsong. They took it.
Then the Japanese moved northward and destroyed everything they found. They made their way to the major city of Pyongyang and took that too. When they did so, the city had been abandoned and the inhabitants had forgotten to destroy their stores. This replenished the Japanese army which had nearly finished its conquest. Then they slaughtered their way to the border with Ming China and the Jurchen Mongols in Manchuria.
When Korea had been destroyed, its navy began to retaliate. It was led by Yi-Sun Shin and he was the best admiral. With no government left in place to hamper him, he ended the Japanese invasion.
He began by destroying Hideyoshi’s supply lines. The troops that he sent to Korea were sunk in transit, and so too were the baggage trains. The Japanese army did not grow.
Then he found the places where Japanese pirates had left their ships to loot islands and destroyed their vessels. This marooned the pirates who then starved.
Then he went hunting Japanese ships and destroyed them all for free.
Then he got mad.
Admiral Yi was normally a patient man, and it was difficult for lesser men to arouse his anger. However, he tired of watching the Japanese skin people alive and set them on fire, so he decided to punish them.
To that end, he invented the Turtle Ship. It was the first ironclad battleship. Its armor could not be broken, its spiky shell made it impossible to board, its cannons destroyed whatever it reached, and the dragon head at the front made it look cool. They could not be harmed.
Six of the Turtle Ships were constructed and they were used to destroy the Japanese navy. They did this through many minor engagements.
Hideyoshi became frustrated by the Korean navy’s success and ordered three of his greatest admirals to destroy it. They brought a fleet of 80 ships against the Koreans, and Admiral Yi destroyed them all for free.
The Japanese did not use navies after this.
Admiral Yi proceeded to sail to Busan and destroyed 100 Japanese boats there. They retreated when they could not drive the Japanese from the land.
The Japanese in Korea had been stranded and isolated. At this point, the scattered Korean populace had formed a righteous army to defeat them. They engaged in guerilla warfare against the Japanese and whittled them down.
While this was happening, the Japanese army was starving to death. The loss of supply routes with Japan meant that they were forced to forage for food within Korea. Yet the righteous Koreans had destroyed all food supplies that the Japanese might take. Moreover, the samurai were warriors and inept at growing food of their own. Moreover, Admiral Yi controlled the seas around Korea and the army could not fish for food. This forced the Japanese army to march on Jinju, which protected rice fields that had not been destroyed.
The Japanese expected the Koreans to crumple before them and made audacious displays before their castle. The Koreans shot them. Then the samurai sharged Jinju, and the Koreans shot them again. Then they tried to scale the fortress with ladders, and the defenders dropped large stones on them and fired again.
The samurai became desperate in their hunger-mad charge and began to fill in the moat around the fort with their dead. This allowed them to assault the entire length of its walls. When they charged again the rest were shot and fell on top of the mounds.
The remaining Japanese then heard many loud horns of the righteous Koreans surrounding them and knew that they had lost. They turned around and saw an opening and fled. They were shot fleeing. Hideyoshi hated this.
By this time, the Ming had recognized the Japanese threat and sent an army to drive them from the peninsula. It was large and varied and poorly trained. It went to Pyongyang and besieged the city. The scattered Koreans joined them as they moved southward.
When the army arrived at Pyongyang, the Japanese had fortified the city heavily, so the Chinese did not approach it. They surrounded the city with great cannons and began to destroy it, for they had no great love of the Korean settlement and concerned themselves with ruining the Japanese invasion. When the righteous armies stormed the city the samurai burned it and fled to a nearby mountain pass. The fort there had already been destroyed and abandoned by other samurai who had fled from the liberating army. These men had become cowardly after reading the orange mens’ books and would be rebuked.
The Ming continued to push southward until the samurai were on the coast. They entered a stalemate there.
While the Ming, the Koreans, and the samurai army were preoccupied in the south, Hideyoshi sent a final army in secret to Korea. This went to Jinju and its purpose was to avenge the previous loss there. When they arrived, the Koreans were surprised by the attack and all of them were killed. The secret fleet sent ten-thousand heads back to Hideyoshi as proof that his vengeance had been carried out.
When Hideyoshi had taken his vengeance, peace talks began between himself and the Ming. Hideyoshi believed that he had won because his men had killed so many enemies and because his own lands could not be invaded. The Ming emperor believed that he had won because the Japanese had been repulsed. They both demanded that the other side surrender. Neither side would surrender to the losing side, so the wars resumed three years later.
The Japanese offensive began by persuading the Goguryeo king Seonjo to imprison Admiral Yi by implicating the admiral in a plot to overthrow Seonjo. Hideyoshi’s plot succeeded. The court began infighting and its military was ruined.
Then Hideyoshi invaded Korea with a massive army and planned to fortify the peninsula so that he could later invade China.
Hideyoshi’s navy sailed to Busan and destroyed the Korean fleet. In the process, his admirals made the mistake of killing Admiral Yi’s incompetent replacement and affected his release. The samurai landed.
Hideyoshi’s army pillaged its way through southern Korea and they decapitated everyone they fought. However, the area was still underpopulated from their previous wars, so there were not enough heads for the samurai to remove. That is why they began severing noses from the heads that they had already removed. Then they moved northward.
The Ming emperor had learned during the previous war that the Japanese were to be taken seriously and sent a powerful army of heavy cavalry to run down their katanamen. It was moderately successful.
Further north, Admiral Yi was released from prison and sent to destroy the Japanese navy. He went to the remnants of the Korean navy and found that it had been reduced from over 100 ships to just thirteen. He sailed to a strait where the Japanese fleet was anchored and used his thirteen vessels to destroy 50 ships for free. Then he left. The other three hundred Japanese ships refused to chase him. The Japanese did not send reinforcements after this.
Meanwhile, the Ming used this advantage to ambush a large samurai force in the south. They had nearly destroyed it when hordes of samurai began pouring into the battle valley from the other sides of the mountains and forests. The ambushers found themselves surrounded and were forced to retreat before they had finished. The ambushed used this retreat to push back and slaughter the Chinamen while they fled. By the end, both sides were too weak to destroy the other.
Time passed and the Japanese began to starve; half of them returned to Japan, and those who remained defended their holdings. The Ming and Joson attacked many of their castles and drowned in allied blood each time. The floods then carried them away. The stalemate continued.
Then Hideyoshi died and the samurai went home.
When the samurai were returning they did so on a gigantic fleet of 500 vessels. Admiral Yi caught them with a fleet of 150 boats of his own. Then he destroyed half of the Japanese fleet and captured many of their ships. The reader already knows how many boats he himself had lost. He was, however, struck by a stray bullet and died. His last words were: “We are about to win. Do not announce my death.”
The Japanese did not return for a long time.
Betrayal
When Hideyoshi had gained control of Nobunaga’s empire, there were many clans under his rule. Many were loyal and some were not. Those that were loyal contributed greatly to the war effort in Korea, and those that were not did not. As a result of this, the armies that were loyal to Hideyoshi were depleted and those that were disloyal were strong. The disloyal clans united around Tokugawa Ieyasu, and overthrew the Toyotomi clan when Hideyoshi died. They did this at Sekigahara, where Musashi learned to war. Thus, Ieyasu seized Japan.. This is how the last shogunate formed.
The Floating World
When the Tokugawa had ended their seizure of Japan from the Hideyoshi, the shogunate entered a period of isolationism. During this time it would only trade with the shipbuilders, the Chinese, and the water-giants. Society was rigidly caste-based, and the religious factions on the island conflicted with the shogunate. The shogun ruled and cloistered.
The Hungerers
The shoguns had ruled for centuries when the Hungerers came. They arrived from a place farther north than had been explored, and they built ports on the shogunate’s islands. The Tokugawa failed to dislodge them. The Tokugawa proceeded to invite the tea-traders to drive out the Hungerers with their great guns and greater ships. They succeeded. When the traders left Japan, they brought accounts of the land to peoples in the east and west.
The Regret
The traders went to the Surrenderers close to their home country and the Independent with whom they had warred and told them of the wealth of Japan and the incompetence of the shogun’s army. They resolved to open the land to themselves.
Shortly thereafter, the Independent sailed a collection of iron boxes to open the islands to the world. The shogunate could not pierce through their hides, and the Independent admiral, whose name was Matu, pried open the islands.
Order to Expel the Barbarians
When the shogunate was compelled to submit to foreign powers, many factions within Japan opposed it. Emperor Komei saw an opportunity to restore Imperial power and overthrow the shogun.
Komei announced his claim to power with an order to expel the barbarians from Japan. This necessitated the expulsion of the Independent and their allies, as well as the deposition of the shogunate that had permitted them to enter. Many factions joined him; some were discontent with the shogunate, some were discontent with the sea-comers, and fewer were loyal to the emperor.
The Mori were the clan most loyal to the emperor, and they repelled the barbarians first. They set about repelling the barbarians at the Straits of Shimonoseki, which connected the outer Japanese sea with the inner.
The Shimonoseki Straits
At the waters of Shimonoseki, the Choshu clan under Mori guidance attacked the Independent warships with old weapons that were ineffective against the iron diplomats. This incensed the Independent, and they summoned more sea-comers. Among these were the sea-giants, the surrenderers, and the traders.
It was the belief of the sea-comers that the arrival of their large and invincible fleet would deter the Mori attack. They were wrong, and every one was fired upon.
The Independent retaliated by unleashing the Wyomi ship into the straits and destroying the fleet of old Choshu. The sea-comers then bombarded the naval settlements of the Choshu and sued for harsh peace.
At this time, the Independent were forced to return to their homeland to carry out their civil war. This reduced the sea-comers strength, and the Choshu refused to entreat with the barbarians from across the sea.
So it was that the remaining sea-comers ruined the coast of Japan until the shogun put down the rebellious Choshu and executed their commanders. The sea-comers demanded payment for their damages, and because the shogunate was unable to pay, taxes were raised.
The Discontent
At this point, the shogunate too despised by its subjects. It had ruled through force and suppression. It had isolated its subjects. It prevented innovation. It was opposed to the emperor. It failed descent from heaven. It had been founded by a scoundrel. It had raised taxes intolerably. And it was weak.
The End
During the time of discontent and weakness, the western lords rose against
the shogunate and brought the sea-comers guns into the imperial lands. Rebellions then erupted in many parts of the shogunate’s lands. The armies of the Tokugawa had, for many years, been weakened by constant uprisings and were incapable of maintaining order throughout the country against the rebels and their sea-coming allies. The shogun saw that fighting was futile, and abdicated after several failed actions.
Thus, the right of rule by the imperial family was restored to Japan under Meiji and his western allies, and the children of Izanami would change dramatically, permanently.