Land of the Risen Son[1]
Part 1: A Demon's Dream
By 1582, the Warring States period of Japan seemed to be drawing to a close. Oda Nobunaga, the famed "Demon King," was at the height of his power, having just finished destroying the formerly powerful Takeda clan. Central Japan was firmly under his control, while the only remaining threats were the Mori, Uesugi, and Hojo clan. Of these both the Uesugi and Hojo clan were suffering from the recent deaths of their great leaders, Uesugi Kenshin and Hojo Ujiyasu, and the corresponding succession of less competent successors. Nobunaga decided to take advantage of the weakness of his rivals, and so began to aggressively embark on military campaigns in all directions, sending perhaps his best general, Hashiba Hideyoshi to attack the Mori clan, Shibata Katsuie the Uesugi clan, Niwa Nagahide to invade the important province of Shikoku, while leaving Takigawa Kazumasu to defend against any potential attack by the Hojo clan.
This strategy began to pay off as Hashiba Hideyoshi laid siege to Takamatsu Castle, which, if it fell, would leave the Mori clans home domain helpless before Hideyoshis rampaging armies. However, before Takamatsu Castle fell, Hideyoshi sent a request to Nobunaga for reinforcements. Hideyoshi did not have samurai heritage, leaving many more noble born Oda retainers to envy his rapid rise. By asking Nobunaga for help, Hideyoshi made sure that Nobunaga would receive the glory for taking Takamatsu Castle, which was about to fall, and thus receive the glory for the inevitable defeat of the Mori clan which would follow. By doing this, Hideyoshi would be, in effect, confirming the hierarchy of honor to the rest of Odas retainers, relieving some of the tensions that had been building up against him.
In support of Hideyoshi, Nobunaga ordered Akechi Mitsuhide to assemble his army and assist Hideyoshi, while he himself departed with a few retainers towards the front lines. Mitsuhide, however, made other plans. Sending a message to Kyoto, Mitsuhide claimed that Nobunaga had ordered Mitsuhide to conduct a military parade in the capital, a common event. Mitsuhides real intentions, however, were to initiate a coup detat while Nobunaga was defenseless at Honno-ji temple in Kyoto, where Nobunaga always stayed while in Kyoto. Mitsuhides plans, however, were leaked to Nobunaga. Gathering some nearby loyal retainers, Nobunaga surprised Mitsuhide at his encampment outside of Kyoto, demanding a private interview. A nervous Mitsuhide, not realizing his plan had been leaked, but uncomfortable at Nobunagas sudden appearance was forced to accept. In the private interview, Nobunaga revealed his knowledge of Mitsuhides plot. Surrounded by Nobunagas retainers, and his plot exposed, Mitsuhide was forced to commit seppuku, while Nobunaga took control over the army, continuing his journey to help Hideyoshi.
When he arrived, the castle, already near collapse, fell. Exploiting this opportunity, Nobunaga quickly moved, defeating the outnumbered and outclassed Mori clan, utterly destroying it as an opposing force by 1583. Elsewhere, things were not going quite so well for the Oda clan. Both Hojo and Uesugi were engaging in spirited counterattacks borne of desperation. As a result, Katsuie and Kazumasu were barely holding them at bay. With the Mori defeated, however, Nobunaga was free to concentrate on his remaining foes.
Sending Hideyoshi along with some reinforcements to bolster Kazumasus defense against the Hojo, Nobunaga took the bulk of his forces and joined Katsuie against the Uesugi. With the combined Nobunaga-Katsuie forces, in 1585 Etchu Province fell, and the Uesugi forces were forced northward into their stronghold of Echigo Province. As a result of several sieges, skirmishes, and battles, the daimyo of the Uesugi clan, Uesugi Kagekatsu, was eventually trapped in his castle at Nagaoka. After a relatively short siege, the castle fell and Uesugi Kagekatsu acknowledged Nobunagas lordship over him.
This surrender left the Hojo clan as the last real remaining threat to Nobunagas power. So, in 1587, Nobunaga gathered together his entire powerbase to eradicate the Hojo clan. Heavily outnumbered and out maneuvered, the Hojo clan was easily destroyed. Though Nobunaga continued campaigning in Japan for the next two years, Japan was essentially at peace, unified under Nobunaga.
Militarily secure after Hojos defeat, Nobunaga started to turn his attention away from the military sphere into the civil sphere. Already, Nobunaga had proven himself to be a relative revolutionary and now he began to implement his policies throughout the realm. One of his more controversial policies was his Europeanization of Japan. As early as 1576 Nobunaga had become a patron of Jesuit missionaries in Japan and had overseen the establishment of the first Christian church in Kyoto. With the conquest of western Japan, where the Jesuits were based, Christianity continued to receive positive treatment from Nobunaga. This special treatment was primarily in order to reap the benefits of European trade, but also was intended to weaken the sohei, the Buddhist warrior monks, who had given Nobunaga so much trouble earlier. Under Nobunagas patronage, Jesuit missionaries increased in power, though their numbers remained small. Correspondingly, Portugal, who were the Jesuits official patrons, also grew to have more influence, as a result of their near monopoly on trade.
In addition to the rise of Christian power, there were also several other domestic effects of Nobunagas reign. Throughout Japan, castle towns were developed in order to act as the center of and basis for local economies in an attempt to turn the economy from an agricultural base to a manufacturing base. Closely aligned with this goal was the concern for building roads, in order to facilitate trade. International trade also picked up, not only with the Portuguese and the Jesuits, but also with Korea, China, and the Philippines. Ancient guilds and unions were either abolished outright or had their power curbed, resulting in a more free market system.
The results of all these economic efforts, as well as the unification of Japan under his rule, resulted in the amassing of great amount of wealth, which Nobunaga funneled into various projects. In addition to the road and castle building projects, Nobunaga also funded the arts, building extensive gardens and commissioning great works of art. In addition to local, Japanese art, Nobunaga also was interested in European art and culture, and was a major buyer of Jesuit supplied European clothing, art, and weaponry. His support also helped account for the rapid spread of the tea ceremony, which Nobunaga used not only for its aesthetics, but also as a means to conduct business and diplomacy.
Lastly, and perhaps most significantly, Nobunaga encouraged merit-based promotions and honors. Already, this policy had produced one of his best generals, Hideyoshi, who had been born a peasant. With a large part of the traditionalists having been defeated during the unification of Japan, there was a power vacuum which became filled by these neo-samurai, who owed the entirety of their advancement to Nobunaga, and thus were fanatically loyal to him.
With peace and prosperity at home, Nobunaga finally allowed himself the luxury of embarking upon one of his long desired goals, the Japanese conquest of China. In addition to being one of his dreams, the invasion would also serve a practical purpose of mitigating the possible civil disorders resulting in the excess numbers of samurai and soldiers left over from the unification wars. As early as 1587, Nobunaga had been negotiating with Korea in order to get them to grant safe passage for his troops to march through and attack China. In this endeavor, Nobunaga was supported by the Europeans. Under Nobunagas patronage, the Jesuits had naturally enough been exaggerating their successes, leading many Europeans to the mistaken conclusion that Nobunaga himself as well as the country was Christian. The Europeans, thus saw Nobunagas planned invasion of China as a way to spread the gospel to the Chinese.
The first such negotiation was a diplomatic mission sent by Nobunaga headed by Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ieyasu, himself a famed warrior, personally despised the Koreans, who he felt were weak and effeminate, though attempted his best to forge a peace treaty, as he felt a war would be a mistake. This negotiation failed for cultural as much as practical considerations, Korea being firmly entrenched in the Chinese tribute system, which saw both China and Korea as superior to Japan. A second failed negotiation attempt resulted in an ultimatum delivered in 1591. This ultimatum, which demanded that Korea join Japan in an attack on China, was rejected, and Nobunaga declared war on Korea.
[1] Yes I am horribly ashamed of the bad pun, though not enough to not find it amusing.
. The Xhosa would work though wouldn't they?
Question, though: why is Tokugawa in charge of the Korean campaign as opposed to Hideyoshi? Hideyoshi has seniority after all. And as to the Christians - while their influence has "increased", what does that mean in concrete terms: what kind of conversions are we seeing, if any? Has Nobunaga himself converted? 
). That fell by the wayside rather quickly, with the law becoming subservient to the Emperors, the Senate losing any semblance of power and successive Emperors being soldiers (and consequently having to rely on the military to keep power, which wasn’t always a bad thing but it did destroy the abilities of the Emperors to make tough decisions).
