A Geek History of Time - Episode 300 - Shogun Way Back Then, Then, and Now Part III

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

Item one, hit the grocery store. Item two, laundry. Item three, over through capitalism. You know, for somebody who taught Latin, your inability to pronounce French like hurts. Damn. Look at you getting to the end of my stuff. Motherfucker. But seriously, I do think that this bucolic, luxurious live your weird fucking dreams kind of life is something worth noting. Because of course he had. I got into an argument essentially with

with some folks as to whether or not punching Nazis is something you should do. And they're like, no, then you're just as bad as the Nazis. I was like, the Nazis committed genocide. I'm talking about breaking noses. Drink scotch and eat strychnine. All right, you can't leave that lying there. Luxury poultry.

Yes, yes. Fancy chickens. Yes, fancy chicken. Pet, pet fancy chickens. Pet fancy chickens. Pet Fancy Chickens. Pet Fancy Chickens. This is a Geek History of Time. Where we connect nerdery to the real world. My name is Ed Blaylock I'm a world history teacher here in Northern, California and earlier this evening I was at the birthday dinner for a friend of the show Sean and

I had the opportunity for the first time in a while to try grappa Or rather I've tried it before but this is the first time in a while. I Grappa, or rather I've tried it before, but this is the first time in a while I've had any of it to drink. And I learned that there is in fact a distinct difference between the really good stuff and the cheap stuff. There are some varieties of alcohol where like you can give me, you can tell me, hey, this is a shot of $200 of this liquor and you know I'll drink it and go okay that's that's pretty good you'll give me a shot of and this is like

dishwater version of this liquor and I'll drink it and go I can't tell the difference. Turns out grappa is not one of those things. There is a very of those things. There is a very, very profound difference. And so this episode may be particularly colorful as a result of me coming here from a birthday party. But there you go. How about you, sir? Well, I'm Damien Harmony. I am a US history teacher up here in Northern California at the high school level And I don't like dating our podcast as you know, I like them to be timeless Yes

But I do live in Northern California And we have something called earthquake preparedness that we are supposed to engage in every year Yeah, I will not say when that is but right How do I put this without sounding like just a grumpy old man who hates children Don't fucking stupid. Yeah Don't even don't evenumber than a bag of hair. I literally had a kid come up to me and say, how can we have to do these earthquake drills?

We don't have earthquakes in California. And I'm like, and I just started laughing at him. I'm like, yeah, there's nothing else you could do at that point. And again, I'm gonna date this. I'm like, do you know what today is the anniversary of? Yeah, yeah Yeah Who played on this day in the World Series in 1989 yeah look that up

Like that up today's date 1989. Oh my god like how Just start just start typing in today's date in Loma, and it'll fill in there. Honestly, just start typing in today's date. Yeah, that's true. And 1989, and you'll get there. And part of me was like,

if he had even just said the name of our city, I could almost kind of forgive that because very often what we do feel is barely happening That's and so you know, yeah, my dog woke me up last night. I don't know why it's like, oh, there was a four point Oh, hey, there was yeah, and and we yeah, okay cool. Whatever, you know, and yeah, I would have been fine with that but We're in California. We don't get earthquakes my child. I have failed you I Know no history teacher for you last year have failed you Because I didn't get past 1900 and I've gotten a 1906

Videos from from before and after. Yeah. Yeah. So, anyway, I love the kids. They're actually working harder this year than they've been in the last few years. It hasn't shrunk the number of meetings I've had to go to. Oh well, because parents suck. Like, you know, I mean... Mr. Harmony, can you teach history without religion?

Not in the 1800s. No, not. Mr. Harmony, can you teach history more neutrally? No, no. History is not neutral. History, yeah. History is not. Yeah. And then, and then when I point out, I've had these same questions back when I taught geography, I am then asked by somebody who is ostensibly in charge of me when they say, what does geography have to do with religion?

Everything. Have you been seeing the news in the last year alone? Like, like, what's, what's been at the top of the masthead? Like, I mean, I mean, I understand. I understand that there are certain schools of historical thought that would, you know, cry out against the whole, you know, geography is destiny kind of outlook. And I didn't say geography was destiny.

I know. I know. I understand. But I said you get where I'm going with it, it though is like that would involve too much thought on Like I'm sorry, but is on everybody's part. Yeah again. I don't like to date this I know but there's been an intersection of history and Religion and geography in the news For a while now. Yeah. Yeah anyway All right, so now something cheerful I don't know if it's exactly cheerful, but it's at least drama. That's not related to not directly related to Anything we have to deal with on a daily basis, so it's kind of escapist. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah

So when when last we we left our Chronicle, yes We're talking about the the rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Yes In in to lead up to get us to the context of Shogun. And um, so we had just left off where, uh, there had been, um, uh, the warfare between Ieyasu and Nobunaga on one side and the Takeda clan on the other side. And Ieyasu had done some truly badass shit in the face of defeat at the Battle of Mitakagahara, where he ordered his men to leave the castle gates open and beat all the drums and light every brazier. Right. You know, and Takeda rode up and went, hold up, this looks like a trap and backed off,

thereby saving Tokugawa's ass, right? And so later on, Takeda Shingen, the Tiger of Kai, one of the most legendary warlords of Japanese history. And if you ever get the chance to study the subject, you'll understand that's really saying something because it's a panoply of crazy badasses. So anyway, Takeda Shingen died and Shingen's son Katsuyori tried, but just couldn't live up to his father's example. And then Oda and Tokugawa shattered Takeda forces, the Battle of Nagashino using, as I mentioned in the episode, the notable thing about that is that they, that, that Oda Nobunaga had developed a cycling system of fire for his archibas troops.

So he'd have one line fire and then fall back and reload, have a second line come up and fire and fall back and reload and a third line fire and reload. So he had drilled these troops very highly. They were very highly disciplined, very highly trained and using those tactics they were able to Just absolutely eviscerate to Kata's very very famous very fierce cavalry forces

Mm-hmm, and so that that took that took the fight out of Takeda, but Kata yori got away And I had mentioned that Kata yori went on to remain a thorn in That took the fight out of Takeda, but Katsuyori got away. And I had mentioned that Katsuyori went on to remain a thorn in Ieyasu's, particularly Ieyasu's side. Even though militarily, he was no longer the same anywhere near the same threat. Right. So, now while all this had been going going on so Takeda and Takeda Ieyasu Ieyasu and Nobunaga

Had been fighting this campaign. Nobunaga had been fighting kind of other campaigns or had his generals fighting other campaigns for him While all of this had been going on while Ieyasu had been winning battles territory, doing all of this stuff. He had created, I don't want to say unavoidably, but it was kind of inevitably, he'd created a problem for himself in that he had one faction of his retainers who were his go-to Closest retainers his his bosom friends and and like badass generals, right? Mm-hmm, and they were the ones out with him going out kicking ass gaining territory getting renowned getting rewarded and his wife and his son and another faction of his followers

Were back home at Okazaki Castle Not getting those opportunities for advancement not getting the opportunity to go out and you know do badass warrior shit, right? right and so the the Hamamatsu faction which is the group that was with And so the the Hamamatsu faction which is the group that was with Ieyasu on the front lines, right? So how much a castle is his his like forward base, right? So there's how much a castle which is which is the front lines Which is where all the ass kickers are and they're going out and they're earning themselves stipends and they're earning themselves territory and they're doing all this stuff and getting this reputation as bad asses. And then there are these other retainers and his wife, very notably, and his son, just

as notably, who are back at the ancestral home at Okazaki castle, like holding down the fort and maintaining logistics and doing all that stuff. And that's important, but it's not glorious. And in the Sengoku era, if you're a samurai, that's not how you get ahead. It's kind of like, um, it may well be more important, but it is not more flashy. So, yeah, you know, it's, it's, you know, it's like being a sapper is not a, a sexy job. No, but my God, it can win battles. Yeah. But it's, but it's how you wind up taking out a castle. Yeah. And this is literally the opposite. This is like, you're

holding down this castle. Yeah. And it's like, I mean, playing defense is never as exciting as playing. Never as glamorous. Yeah. You know, taking I mean playing defense is never as exciting as playing never is glamorous Yeah, you know taking the toughness feat is not as cool as great weapon master. Yeah, it's just not yes there you go Yeah, it's okay. Yeah, I got plus three hit points like right right, but dude those three hit points can make a huge ass difference Like let me tell you But yeah, that's that's a good analogy the way I'd say it is like you know in any corporate organization The ones that like at the end of the year at the company Christmas party or whatever the guys that always get called up By the boss or the sales people

You know who've been out and who brought in all this money and done all this stuff and like all that and they're you know Doing all this is important. I'm not which is which is important right but they're the ones that get the Lions often you know the ones who get the lion's share of the recognition where like the IT department who made sure that the company didn't go up in a ball of purple flame have been busting their asses dealing with all kinds of petty shit from everybody all year and they get nothing because they're not seen as a revenue generating part of the organization right. It's a similar kind of dynamic here right. So I said that Takeda Katsuyori stayed a thorn in Ieyasu's side. Well, so it turns out there are different stories about how exactly this happened.

Okay. But a plot got uncovered in which Katsuyori had sent letters to Tokugawa's wife, offering her and her son, Ieyasu's oldest son, his heir, assistance, if they killed Ieyasu and turned on Nobunaga. Oh wow. And there's different versions of the story and we know that there was some kind of communication with Tokugawa's wife. Now Nobunaga is from the Oda clan? Yeah, yeah, Nobunaga is at this point chief ass kicker of Japan.

Right. Tokugawa is, the Tokugawa family are allied to Oda. Right. And Ieyasu and Nobunaga had a relationship, we don't know how tight they were, but they had they had met each other as Youngsters and at this point they formed a very tight relationship with one another and this is because Ieyasu was Taken as kind of hostage. Yes by the Oda clan when he was on his way to the other clan

Whose name is Imagawa Imagawa clan. There we go. I was like it's three syllables with a vowel in the beginning. Yeah, yeah, you know. OK, so so so yeah. And and remember also that another wrinkle in this story of marital betrayal is that Ieyasu's wife was a essentially a princess of a very high ranking family of Imagawa. So there's there's a whole like there's ancestral relationships like all of these

groups. These families are interrelated and yes interrelated and feuding at the same time and they have and they have connections going back four generations You know, I mean, it's it's a whole it's a whole thing and so Now real quick this this alliance I guess alliance right between Ieyasu and and no but no but Naga no but Naga Now these guys are kind of like Pompey and

Crassus in terms of age difference. There's like half a generation between them. There's, I don't know if it's quite that much. I want to say it's like seven or eight years. Yeah, ten years. That's half a generation. Okay.

So Nobunaga is trying to Years, okay. Yeah, thank you. That's half a generation. Okay. All right. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so Yeah, it's it's not but Nagga's trying to hold on to power. Yeah, Yasu is trying to gain power Well at this point there they're both trying to gain power no, no, no, no, no But Naga has gotten himself into a position of being The big man he is the dying yo, he is the big name at this point Okay, but he's but he's still not he's still not the hegemon Okay, and he has he has installed somebody in the office of Shogun, okay? And and he is in a position to be able to push other people around

Really securely, but he's also still in the process of having to kick a lot of ass. Right. To to really solidify things. And he's the one that's having trouble with the eco eco eco, eco, eco, eco, eco, eco. Is he the one having trouble with them or was that mostly? Well, at this point, Ieyasu by this time had mostly managed to deal with that issue in his own territory Okay, he had he had kicked the ass of like the main example of that group Okay asserted his leadership over the members of his own retainers who had turned against him Through you know, basically just sheer charisma and like no. No, I am your fucking liege lord, you know, right. Um, and, and, um, no, but Naga is in an ongoing feud, ongoing campaign to crush them utterly in

his territory. Okay. So this is a, uh, multi-territory group. It's a movement. Right. Okay. OK, so this is a multi-territory group. It's a movement. Right. OK, I thought it was in a single locality or maybe I just forgot that it was in different regions. OK. Yeah. And they're not helping

each other with it in each other's regions because you don't want somebody else's soldiers in your place. Essentially. Yeah. OK. Yeah. It was it was a it was a, it was, yeah. And who was the one that did the,

who's the one that did the archibus rallies? Nobodaka was the one who figured out, hey, if I can train my lowest ranking foot soldiers well enough on this weapon, I can maintain a rate of fire. Yeah. Yeah, because the thing was that Kata actually had had coped had had learned to cope with the

introduction of firearms by giving their horsemen shields they actually had big square okay metal metal faced shield yes yeah that would be enough that when the archipelago fired they had the shields up and that would that would protect enough of them, right? They would then drop the shields because they're heavy and cumbersome right and speed up on the charge Okay, and that and that had worked previously because the reload time on an archibos is kind of ridiculous right right? So you want to figure out a series? Yeah? Yeah If I can

get a second and a third shot in they're not gonna be able to dare I'm gonna cut them they're gonna drop their shields and then the third shot is gonna mow them down okay like wheat so was he so then turning that on these people in his territory is that a bad idea the issues with with the echo Icky wound up being resolved by extended and, and by modern standards, horrific sieges. Okay. He basically hold them up in there in their monastery fortresses and like starved them to the point of madness and death. Okay. Yeah. It was, it was a,

a brutal kid like, yeah, it was an ugly, ugly, ugly campaign. And he was, like, I get the sense. I don't know about, you know, actual professional historians of Japan and their take on it, but everything I've read about it seems to indicate that there was a certain level of personal like, no, no, fuck you. In his, his pursuit of, I don't, I'm not going to try to accommodate any of you. I'm going to crush you out of existence like rats. Like just, yeah. Okay.

Whereas, whereas Ieyasu was like, okay, no, look, I've got my followers back. You understand you're not going to fuck with me anymore. Right. So you're not going to get in my way. You're going to pay taxes like you're supposed to. You're going to do what I need. I don't care anymore. You know, right.

We can we can reach some level of kind of understanding. I can ignore you and whatever, you know. So yeah. So in the midst of all that, Katsuyori sends this letter to, or series of letters, to Ieyasu's first wife. And there may have been some extent to which his first wife was upset at, there's stories about her being like upset at her daughter-in-law who, because he had, Tokugawa had married his son to Oda Nobunaga's daughter. And then Tokugawa was, and so Ieyasu's second son had been adopted by Nobunaga. So, I mean, they are tight.

I cannot overstate just exactly how closely they have allied themselves. Right. This is you've married. I mean, this is more than you've married my daughter. Yeah. This is we are joining like the next offspring that comes is going to be the same to both of us. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So there's their stories that Tokugawa's first wife was, you know, upset that her son had been married off to Nobunaga's daughter, that she had wanted him to marry somebody else. There are stories that Nobunaga found out about the plot because

his daughter wrote back to him saying, my mother-in-law is being a bitch and I'm pretty sure she's talking to Takeda Katsuyori. We don't know for certain what the details are Okay, but we do know No, but I got learned of the plot and at this point now Yeah, Yasu was put in difficult position Because his wife had very clearly been implicated in this right and his son had been indirectly implicated There was question about whether his son knew anything or not. Okay. But there was clearly an implication there. And so, Ieyasu had to had to, you know, figure out what he was going to do about this.

Mm-hmm Because he he now had more power than he had ever had up to this point But he was still in a situation where he was surrounded by enemies and Oda Was his one really solid alliance Right that he couldn't that he and his retainers like could not afford to lose. So even if you wanted to go like balls to the wall, you've been conspiring against us. Yeah. Like even if you did believe that, yeah, you couldn't, you kind of couldn't afford to believe that. Yeah. Okay.

So with this whole situation of like, you know, having to figure out what action he was going to take, he ordered his wife's execution and had his son imprisoned with instructions that he commits seppuku. With instructions that he commits seppuku Lady Tsukiyama was beheaded on the shores of Lake Sonaru and Nobuyasu killed himself in prison in 1579 Ieyasu then named his third son Hide Tata his heir What happened to second son? He died. Second son was the one who was adopted by Oda Nobunaga.

Oh, gotcha. Right, right, right. Okay. So, um, and there is, there is, he basically sold out his wife and child. Okay. So this because of the implications involved, never mind if it was real he still has to K there. Yeah, we as far as we know

It's pretty clear. I mean all of the sources seem to agree that lady Tsuki. I'm a was pretty much like, you know I used my husband like I'm I'm okay. No, I am better than this I've been relegated this, you know, he's taken it by this time to yes. I've had I want to say at least three wives Because polygamy was a not okay his rank Yeah, and so, you know, she had come from a higher ranking family in the first place She had this this pedigree God, this sounds caesar-esque like oh again. I keep going back to what I know in history and like caesar divorced his first wife

Because clodius had snuck in Uh dressed as a woman to a festival that was only for the women in the wife of the pontifist maximus's house Yeah, um and like was gonna fuck one of the Pontifist Maximus's house. Yeah. And like was gonna fuck one of the Vestal Virgins basically. And because even if she knew nothing about it, it happened on her watch at her house, he divorced her saying,

Caesar's not even Caesar's wife can be in any kind of doubt. Yeah, Caesar, I've heard it translated as Caesar's wife must be above reproach or something. Yeah, but yeah, yeah But it's he didn't he didn't order killed or yeah, you know and okay So having his son commit seppuku. Yeah real quick Harry Kerry and seppuku same thing same thing Okay, cool. Same thing. How do you hear he is the? Vulgar common term for it. Oh, cool. Same thing, harakiri is the vulgar common term for it. Oh, okay, okay. Sepuku, I don't remember the literal translation of sepuku, but it's, you know, ending one's life.

Harakiri literally means belly splitting. Okay, so it's more visceral. So it's the more vulgar, literally visceral. It makes sense, because the announcer for the white Socks forever was seppuku Whereas for the Cubs it was Harry Carrey Ah Nicely done. Thank you. Not even mad not even mad, but that's right

Okay, so did he have his son commit seppuku? because of So did he have his son commit seppuku? Because of honor like okay now. I've tidied it all up or because he was this he was afraid his son would Like he was trying to stand against him because hey you killed my mom like I saw I saw Okay, column a and column B, okay? part of it was again A and column B. Okay. Part of it was again, we're we're we're all I can't say certain but we're pretty close to certain that Lady Tsukiyama had been had been scheming. Okay. Her son about this. He was pissed. Okay. Like, you know, this is this is You know I married I married I married my daughter to you and I married my daughter to your son and What is this going on? You're you know this is happening in your house? What are you gonna fucking do about it? Okay? You know um?

Cuz he you know no, but I can knew that Ieyasu had not been like they were plotting against Ieyasu Right directly they were indirectly plotting against no, but I knew that he had not been like they were plotting against he, a Yasu right directly. They were indirectly plotting against Nubanaga, you know, but he's like, I'm, I'm involved in this and this is my daughter in this situation who by all accounts was like, you know, the apple of his eye, you know, daddy's girl. Okay. Um, and so he was like, what are you gonna do here and any AOS has said well, I'm gonna do what I gotta do and There is there is there a moment is there a moment where I know Banu goes like no not like that

No When I said take care of this I didn't oh No, no, I didn't mean when I said take care of this I didn't oh God, I mean I was gonna be out of town. You need to feed him I didn't mean you need to have him put down like yeah No, okay. No this and this time in place. Yeah and so Tsukiyama again Tsukiyama was was beheaded and his son was told to commit suicide.

Sure. There's a whole... I'm sorry. I'm still stuck on Harry Carrey just narrating it. His lower bow is just a bit outside. Just a bit outside, yeah. There's his appendage. That's gotta hurt. Yeah. He's not gonna be walking after that one. Yeah Gotta hurt yeah

He's not gonna be walking after that one is not gonna be walking it. Oh and the second does his job. It's a clean cut You know I am tight on that last one. That's a haircut That's a haircut So go into hell yeah Yeah, well the bus at least will be in company. Yeah, this is full. I want to win Yeah, okay. I'll probably be tending bar so so he he had his son commit suicide because he tending bar. So, so, um, he,

he had his son commit suicide because he, he, he knew that especially because of his son's closeness to his mother and, and just because of the, you know, uh, uh, you loved her, but also honor demands. Yeah. You know, um, there was, there was the chance that would lead to there being another and even more powerful threat against him.

And he could be manipulated too. Hey, this guy killed your mom. I saw Guardians of the Galaxy 2. I know what happened. Yeah, so there you go. Okay. So he kills his wife as his son kill himself Yeah, Vinaga is like bro. All right. Let's move on. Yeah. Well, yeah, nobody is like, all right. You took care of it

Cool. We're good so And and there's there's a whole series of that's like three volumes of the volumes of the collection of the manga, uh, samurai assassin that I've mentioned before being like a romanticized version of this whole history, uh, that, that goes into all of the back and forth with all of the players involved in this

whole set of circumstances. And the protagonist of samurai assassin is Hanzo Hattori Who is a historical figure? Mm-hmm and who we know after all of this in 1604 or whatever Became the head of Tokugawa Ieyasu's secret police force Hanzanzo Hattori did. Hanzo Hattori did. Okay.

And it is a matter of Japanese popular culture legend that Hanzo Hattori was ninja. So in addition to being a daimyo himself, He was the head of a ninja clan according to Legend sure and so in the comic Hanzo is the one who is sent to deliver the message to to Tokugawa son that your dad's telling you you've got a you've got to commit suicide and Hanzo is gonna be the one to Your dad's telling you you've got to you've got to commit suicide and Hanzo is gonna be the one to

Act as his second so when when he when he opens up his belly You know you you you cut yourself you lean forward and then your second ends your suffering I kind of your cutting your head off and in the comic from screaming out, right? Yeah, well, as a practical matter to end your suffering and also, yeah, just to finish the process. Sure. like his son, you know, reads it and there's this very profound moment where he's like, you know, I am, because there's also a subplot within the comic book. There's this lingering question and has been for years about whether Ieyasu's first son was actually his son or if a few nights before his wedding, Imagawa Yoshimoto had gone into his wife's bedroom or his wife to be his bedroom and

gotten in there. Right, right. And anyway, so his son shouts, I am Tokugawa, I forgot his first name, but he says his name and I am the son of Ieyasu, cuts his stomach open and Hanzo hesitates and can't finish it and his son, Tokugawa Ieyasu's son, smiles and another samurai who's present goes, I can't let this continue. He's in agony and this other guy steps forward and takes the son's head and Hattori goes back and delivers the news, you know, your, your wife was killed under

your orders and your son committed suicide. And you know, I have, I, your son's body came back with me and you know, we'll bury it and do whatever we got to do. And there is this back and forth of Ieyasu saying, tell me about my son's last moments. And Hanzo says, I'm ashamed to tell you, I couldn't swing my sword. And Ieyasu says, of course you couldn't swing my sword, you are my right hand, that was my son.

That in this moment, I did what I had to do I told him to do what needed to be done but he was my son right and so of course you couldn't swing your sword you you are you are my my closest friend my avatar my whatever you know and there's this, and there's this very profound emotional moment in the whole thing that really underlines the price that this was that Ieyasu was paying for the survival of his clan, his entire clan. Right. You know, and his son understood that. Yeah. Yeah. And, and in his, and he says, you know, my son smiled because he recognized that you hesitating meant, you know, that was me. He was me. You were me. Right. No. So kind of has big like, here's why chewy only shot Kylo in the, in the waste vibe kind of stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and there's, there is, this is another word of those things where like, you know, uh, uh, George Lucas would read this and, and get, you know, the, the, the surface, you know, imagery at all. And then like, okay, there's Buddhism here, there's Confucianism, there's like so many different layers to this that as a westerner, so many different layers to this that as a westerner, you have to know them to see them. Whereas as somebody who is Japanese, it's just in the water, you know, and you're going to pick up on all of it. So anyway,

so after that all happened, did his son, yeah. How old was his son are we talking teenager we talk in 20s 30s late teenager early 20s son his son was married to the gal yeah they had not had any children yet polyamory being a thing had he had any children no he had not okay so it is clean from. Like the issue of the woman who betrayed you is is done. And so, OK, cool. OK, now now Tokugawa's first wife, the son's mother, had been introducing him to and bringing in

other noble women Some of whom were connected to Takeda who was like hey Mm-hmm. Here's this girl. She's cute, you know in like really Which was starting to get them all rolling Yeah, which was also part of what? Nobunaga's daughter was writing back to him about about like my mother-in-law is such a bitch like I'm she's planning for me being gone Yeah, she's yeah, she's she is trying to alienate me from my husband like yeah, so it was I mean it was a whole thing Okay, so

After all of that happened that's 1579 And this this conflict carried on until 1582 when Again, Takeda suffered more losses over this time Nobunaga gave he a also control of suruga province. So now he's controlling Four or five provinces at this point. Okay, but a 1582 Oda nobunaga was now the most powerful man in Japan and

Nobunaga said hey We've kicked a whole lot of ass How about you go take a tour of the Kansai region? Which is essentially no, but August part of no, but August territory now, okay You go, you know with you know, you're retinue And and go, you know, take a victory lap go go visit the Kansai region go visit, you know these places and while

places. And while Ieyasu was on his victory tour, Nubunaga went and visited a temple outside Kyoto. And he was going to participate in a tea ceremony, which is a very important Zen Buddhist cultural practice. Sure. And he was, he was doing this tea ceremony with this renowned, uh, tea master. Uh, and he was doing this before he was going to head out to join one of his generals, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had gone off to, uh, suppress the Mori clan kind of on the other side of the central ridge of the country. Okay.

And so by this time, Nobunaga had long since succeeded in he'd removed his puppet Shogun from power and had just left the office vacant. Nobunaga was from a noble family, but he was not descended from the Minamoto So he couldn't take the position of Shogun The guy that he had installed as Shogun had tried to rise up against him and he kicked that guy out and now he's like You know what? There just is no Shogun. I'm I'm the guy right? Okay. I'm just the guy right And so secure in his power he had sent his generals off to go kick ass in his name. And they'd gone off in a couple of different directions to do this. And one of his vassals, a general by the name of Akechi Mitsuhide, got his army together. They were all you know Toyotomi

And Oda and this guy Mitsuhide Were ostensibly they were all gonna be going to put down the Mori clan So and this is after they put down. This is after after they have Nearly completely put to bed the Takeda Okay, nearly complete Takeda lingered for a long time. But there. So so Akechi Mitsuhide marches to Kyoto and. On on paper, he's going to Kyoto to join Nobunaga, to then head off to join

Hideyoshi Who was who was doing doing the ass-kicking link siege to a couple of castles in Mori territory, okay? Somewhere along the way or or before he left possibly a catchy Mitsuhide Decided that was nobunaga lightly guarded with the other generals in the army off doing other things This was the time to Strike out for himself to go into business for himself. Oh Now this is it this is that this is a pivotal moment in Japanese history

Is he trying to take the empty spot? He's trying to like if he killed nobunaga He can then is this kind of like a regression back to a tradition like is he relying on that like it feels like you know how we the Julian the apostate was like no. No, we're gonna push back christianity Bring back the gods like is it like i'm gonna get rid of this fucker that got rid of the shogun And i'm gonna be shogun. It's nothing. It's nothing that rooted in any kind of idea of a tradition Okay

As far as we can figure and and this is what's this is absolutely teeth-grindingly frustrating for modern historians We know that a keichi Mitsuhide before he went on his march, like he'd made up his mind before he started marching that this was, this was his time. He was going to do it now, but we don't for sure know his motives. We know he wasn't working with or for the Mori. Okay. Because, um, well, get to one of, essentially we, or for the Mori Okay because

Well get to one of Essentially we know that He only sent messages to the Mori After He he struck and he's not a Takeda He's not a Takeda guy is completely different completely different lineage completely different clan He may have now he did have Minamoto ancestry, so if he took out Nobunaga, he could claim the Shogunate. But we don't

know, there's one theory that he was jealous because Hideyoshi had been, had rocketed up through Nobunaga's ranks and gotten way big promoted from literally nothing into a warlord. And he felt slighted. So he's like, Fredo, I always stepped over. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not dumb. I'm like smart. I'm like smart. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not I'm not I'm not dumb. I'm like smart. I'm like smart. Yeah, right Okay. Yeah, so there's there's that possibility. There's the possibility There's the possibility that there No, Brunaga

Had an abrasive personality sure and so like there's one theory that there was, there were several interactions where no Monaga had been kind of, kind of casually dismissive of him, had not, had not paid him what Mitsuhide thought was a proper respect. Like we, we don't know. We just don't know why the fuck he did it. But what we, what we know is he surrounded the temple, a place called the Hon Naji in the pre-dawn hours of June 21st, 1582 and launched an attack. Nobunaga fought fiercely,

but found himself overwhelmed. He and his closest personal servants and retainers fell back into an inner room of the temple and committed suicide because they're... Go ahead. Were they given the opportunity to commit suicide or was this a, you can't fire me, I quit? This, this, yes, this is 110%. You can't fire me. I quit. This is I will not I will not suffer the indignity of living through my defeat Okay, and and I will not give you the the satisfaction right? Yeah, so he went for a DQ countout

Yes, yes. Yeah. Yes. All right and Somewhere in the chaos of the battle, the template caught fire. No Banaga's body was consumed. This becomes an important point here in a minute. No Banaga's son and air was nearby. Vassals informed him that going to his father's aid was pointless. They were also surrounded surrounded and outnumbered. Oh, and so no, but I guess son also committed suicide and his retainers hid the son's head and body to prevent Mitsuhide forces from getting a hold of them. Because then that would prove that we've defeated that clan. Yes. Yes, it would it would be like

Everybody would look around and be like, okay. Well, where's the Sun his son isn't anywhere. His son must be dead But there would be a level of legitimacy Granted to the victory when he says I have his head I have his body I have captured them This is you know, it's my victory, right? So now word of the assassination reached Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the other follower that I mentioned a minute ago, as he was besieging Mori territory, he, he was attacking a castle. His men

intercepted a messenger, trying to get a message from Mitsuhide to the Mori Inviting them to join him Wait, who's there's too many hymns in his okay, so so sending the message Mitsuhide sent a message to the Mori got it. Okay inviting them to to Ally right Okay inviting them to to ally right? Hideyoshi's men intercepted the message so now Hideyoshi knows number one his master is dead number two He knows who did it mm-hmm and number three he has the information that this has happened The Mori don't know that nobunaga is dead yet

Okay, so he'd he how she kept it a secret negotiated a truce with the Mori and Then turn around and high-tailed it back to intercept Mitsuhide Okay, okay, so he's he's quelled a fight with the people that has kind of the reason that Nobunaga was there. Yeah. And he's done that so he's not fighting on two sides. Essentially. He's stuck. He's stuck a pin in that.

Right. And he's turning around to go get the guy who killed his boss. Okay. And that guy had been asking for help from those people. Yes. Right. Yes. Okay.

So now meanwhile, Ieyasu is on a road trip. Right. Yes. Okay. So now meanwhile, Ieyasu is on a road trip. Right. In territory, not his own. And word suddenly gets out that the single most powerful daimyo in the country has been overthrown by one of his own men. So this could be one of two possibilities. This could be insanely dangerous for him because if those retainers decide to side with somebody who is not aligned with the guy under whose protection he is kind of sworn, he's fucked, or this is an opportunity for him to rally all of those retainers and say, I was the

one truly loyal to your man. If you loved him, you can love me. Both of those are issues. Ieyasu didn't really wind up dealing with either one of those. What happened with Ieyasu was, with Noribou Naga dead, nobody knew whose loyalties lay where. Like, everything was now up in the air mmm, and bands of

Essentially bandits they're referred to as ochi musha gatti They're their bandits that would comb battlefields and loot the bodies of dead samurai or when samurai had been defeated and Scattered into the hills these guys would descend on him to kill them and take their shit Okay, and so bands of these of these bandits are roaming in the hills because word has gone out that like it's hunting season and so Tokugawa Ieyasu accompanied by four of his closest retainers and an overall force of about 200 men by four of his closest retainers and an overall force of about 200 men

Hustled home fighting off bandits the whole way until he got into Mikawa province Some of his closest retainers including Honda Tata Tatsuku Ii Naomasa and hot and Hattori Hanzo Are said to have engaged personally in combat with bandits on the way. There is a surviving diary from one of his retainers that relates that out of give or take 200 men at the start, uh, 34 men made it back to Mikawa. Okay. So this is, this is a running battle to get home to his base of operations. Uh-huh. So, so they can, you know, figure out what the fuck they're going to do next. Right. Right. So meanwhile, so just real quick, he's doing that. Yeah, he's found out. And again, you said he found out that

Nobunaga has been killed. Yes. And this is why he's running back to his home base. Yes. Yes. Because he needs to be where he trusts people. Yeah, he needs to consolidate his power base. Because it's possible that he's gonna have to fight with other retainers of Nobunaga. He might have to fight with those retainers. Also, does he know who did the killing of Nobunaga? I don't know if he knew, I don't know when he knew.

Because I would imagine if, because Hideyoshi knew that it was, what's, what's? Mitsuhide. Mitsuhide knew that it was Mitsuhide who did it so he's running back to kill him. Yeah, if Ieyasu It almost feels like whoever can kill Mitsuhide first is gonna get a better trophy to the loyalty of the people who are still loyal to Nobunaga Nobunaga and this is so but but Ieyasu doesn't know who that is yet To the loyalty of the people who are still loyal to no Banu no Bananas

And this is so but but Ieyasu doesn't know who that is yet. So he's a severe disadvantage Well, I think he asked who probably knew pretty quickly. I'm willing to bet it was probably you know Okay, Chi Mitsuhide has turned on no buddha and killed him and okay things in the chaos like I'm pretty sure however, what's important to remember is? He de Yoshi Had a whole army with him right like he was in the middle of combat operations, right? Yeah, when he finds out so he's got you know 5,000 of his closest friends with him and there so he's and there and there and they're all kitted up and they're all ready to go And they're all kitted up and they're all ready to go.

Ieyasu was on a road trip with his buddies and their entourage. And now he's just now getting back to where his guys are at doing their thing. Yeah. So he's got to get home. So the one of them who's in a better position to do anything about it is Hideyoshi. So the one thing that could fall in any way and in a Asu's favor would be is if Mitsuhide Yeah, ran his direction to get away from Hideyoshi Yes, yes, if he tried to run to Miko a province, right which He or to like make an alliance be like look I killed your guy

But you and I could stand up Yeah, and then the Mori on the other side of him so we could wipe him out and same same. Yeah, right Yeah, okay. Um so Hideyoshi Caught up to Mitsuhide in July and okay feeded him at the Battle of Yamazaki Mitsuhide died just about the worst way that a daimyo could. Uh, he was defeated. Hands super glued to his head, piano wire around the neck, and then he jumps, and then piano wire's ten feet shorter than the building is, so... Okay. ...it removes his head, and he can see his decapitated body squirting the blood right before he loses consciousness

And then they have to bury him in an extra long coffin because his his arms are now Holding his head about a foot above That went to a really dark place You said the worst way yeah Well, I I meant I meant like socially for a cell the worst way which was a wood chipper But they didn't have that kind of mechanism yet So yeah, he he was defeated feed first was not able was not able to commit suicide Led into the hills was set upon by ochi musha gari so common bandits

Those are the ones samurai hunters. Okay. Yeah, and killed by them. Oh they get mentioned in Seven samurai. Yeah, they do. Yeah. Okay, they do. Okay so Being what it's like to be hungry. Yeah, okay. Okay. Yeah Being the vassal who personally defeated his master's betrayer gave Hideo. She an aura of legitimacy Right just like you had said right so yeah, I missed that chance Yeah, and he stepped into leadership of Oda's forces Now is he to Yoshi and Oda?

He he's he's a whole separate thing so Okay, so and actually this this is he is one of the three unifiers of Japan so for we take a moment Yeah, we got it. We got to take a moment to talk about him because he he he becomes important He becomes very important to Ieyasu story at this point, right? so Toyotomi Hideyoshi Much like Tokugawa Ieyasu, was born with a completely different

name, but I'm not going to go into all of that chronology here because it's a whole lot of very long names. But he was born a commoner. His father had picked up a weapon and gone to fight for Oda. And Hideyoshi did not follow that path until he was an adult. He was probably 30. Hideyoshi is notably older than Nomadaga and Ieyasu. He's another 15 years older. He's a lepidus to yes to the that's a Augustus and oh

We're into second triumvirate territory here. We are yeah this point the chronology. We really are yeah, so he he was born a peasant he had been a He wound up. I don't remember what job he did off top of my head, but he'd had a a trade and He followed the path for upward mobility during this time period picked up a spear became an ashigaru Okay And then assume that means spearman it means light feet So the the absolute lightest least no fucking are right here's a stick like like basically no armor

Here's a spear. You know the enemy is that way right? But where their arms down so that when we get to them they can't lift up their swords as heavily yeah Yeah, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Uh, yeah. Through his, um, determination, his cunning and, and his loyalty, he had managed to impress Oda Nobunaga and had been promoted, um, first through the ranks of, of being an Ashigaru, he had been given Hatamoto or higher ranking samurai status He had eventually been made nobunaga's sandal bearer, which is a position of very great trust

Think like she'll bearer but sure, you know, yeah, but but it was it was a semi ceremonial semi practical You know body servant kind of position it's it's you are the the Chamberlain yeah to the guy right yeah and then from there he was promoted to no no you have shown if I give you a job you're gonna get it fucking done sure Hideyoshi so so Ieyasu is notable for his sagacity sure for his ability to Win people's loyalty and bring them into his orbit. Okay, and his ability to

Notice his moment and and move when he needs to Hideyoshi is an example of just the fucking Determinator I I'm going to do what I need to fucking do if you tell me to capture a castle I'm literally going to At the head of the army you give me I'm going to climb a mountain On foot to get to it from an angle. They're not going to be prepared for you know, there's there's a combination of some out-of-the-box thinking and a lot of just You're not going to stop me. Sure. Sure. That's that's involved in he knew she's personality and

so he, you know, um, he, he had, had a knack for, he had a knack for being able to negotiate with people. He wasn't, he wasn't the charismatic, you want to join my side because, you know, you and me, same Z's that was like EAS's thing. Hideyoshi was like, okay, no, look, I know the angle. Okay. I know what I need to give you in order for you to agree to this. We're not going to come away from this. Like being buddies, you're not going to wind up being like my bondsman for life

because I've impressed you, but I'm going to get what I need out of you. Okay. Right because I've impressed you but I'm going to get what I need out of you. Okay and so That's that's how he de Yoshi now gets to this position where he is now the unofficial heir to Oda Okay, okay So even though he's older than Oda, even though he's older than Oda, even though he's not one of Oda's sons, he's, you know,

but he is the one that everybody in Oda's forces looks at and goes, he's the ass kicker, like he's in charge. Okay. Is he gonna end up feuding with any of... Oh, we'll get to it. Oh, so so back to our to our boy Yasu now found himself now that now that Oda's out of the picture Yeah, Yasu Now finds himself involved in a three-way fight

Between Hojo who we haven't heard very much from I think I've mentioned him before but they haven't been a huge player Right how Johnson they had a whole yeah as a whole chain of yeah of motels yeah and Uesugi who had been Takeda's big rival okay I mentioned Uesugi Kenshin I don't remember but I trust you okay yeah so now in in the wake in in the A student the creation of this power vacuum Everybody sees the opportunity to now grab what they can and one of the things that's up for grabs is now a huge portion of Takeda's territory They had been defeated so roundly that their territory was, I guess, under the vassal ship

of the Oda clan? Yeah, that's the easiest way to explain it. At this point, because- So now that Oda's sandal isn't on their neck, there's- They can go can go. Yeah, there there. It's less that like to kid his territory hadn't been under Oda control, but

Oda had been enough of a threat to write. Don't make me come back here. Yeah, basically kind of. So so Ieyasu is now fighting against two other forces for the territory of what had of what had been Takeda. Okay. So between June and October of 1582, he managed to drive Uesugi, one of those forces, he drive them out of the region.

He formed a truce with the Hojo. Okay. Mm-hmm. He formed a truce with the hojo okay, and Consolidated control over a very large portion of Kai and Shinano provinces which which had been and kind of the Takeda heartland Okay, okay and his success again coming back to what makes Ieyasu different from Hideyoshi his success heavily relied on his ability to bring former Takeda retainers

into his own orbit through personal charisma and Negotiation, you know, he he was able to go to them and win them over and show them that he was He was the side they wanted to be on Okay them that he was the side they wanted to be on. Okay. Now, it's not to say he... Oh, go ahead. I was going to say that just sounds unsustainable as far as a clan goes.

I get that he's also an upstart in many ways. But if you're going based entirely on the personality of the guy, all you got to do is remove that guy and everything he's done is unraveled Yes, well at this point for most everybody. That's kind of what it is Okay, like for all of these forces. It's always just a generation away. Yeah, okay Yeah, so that's that's that's okay's that is a that is a pitfall of this particular system That is that is a known bug. Yeah and so Now let's not to say that he wasn't still

Displaying his characteristic strategic know-how sure in the early phases the conflict. he was really significantly outnumbered by Hojo and wound up fighting a war of misdirection skirmish and again seizing his moment knowing when it was time to Sure strike and when it was time to fade when it was time to do what right, right? Really notably he sent two of his retainers with a force of 2,000 men to intercept a hojo force that was threatening to encircle him and They his followers in this small group of 2,000 men took the hojo force completely by surprise

Okay, was the hojo force about the same size or bigger or what it was bigger I want to say it was five or six thousand Same size or bigger or what it was bigger. I want to say it was five or six thousand Okay, and but they managed they managed to get the get steal a march on him take him by surprise and The Tokugawa forces set them to route Which allowed the larger army to avoid being encircled right and by the end of the conflict Tokugawa had brought somewhere between eight hundred and nine hundred former Takeda vassals into his personal orbit and each of those vassals represents how many men

each of those vassals Depends we're saying you know the bigger ones could be 75 to 100 men. Smaller ones could be 25 to 30 men. It depends on the... Sure, sure. But it's not each one represents 2,000 guys. No, no, no. No, it's not anything.

It isn't anything that dramatic. Village militias kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know, a baron and his couple or three knights kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, it's it's you know, yeah, a Baron and his you know, couple or three nights kind of thing. Okay, so he gets 900 of them on his side. Yeah, all said and done. Okay, yeah. So he ultimately forced the Hojo to negotiate by making deals with Daimyo to the north and west of Hojo territory.

So he got, he got people in Hojo's backfield to ally with him, which created a threat to their rear. And they were like, okay, fine. Fine. We'll negotiate. And when Tokugawa and Hojo met to determine the terms of their truce, it was Hideyoshi who acted as the mediator because Hideyoshi is now in the position of being this authoritative figure, head of Oda, you know, most powerful single man in the country. How awkward was that for I asu and and hideo she?

not particularly, okay, um this was You know the the Oda Alliance like on paper the Oda Alliance was still a thing even though nobunaga Wasn't there anymore sure Sure. And so, you know, Hideo, she stepping in was, you know, and acting as the broker as it were, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't any, any kind of position where they, they wound up being in any kind of conflict. It was now that I'm, now that I'm the big cheese,

I'm going to help you figure out who's going to give up what in order to establish this truce. And that's that was basically it. Okay. So after that whole conflict ended, Ieyasu summoned his own retainers and a bunch of former Takeda retainers to perform a blood oath of allegiance in March of 1583. Okay, blood oath of allegiance? They essentially cut their thumb or some part of their hand, put a thumbprint on a... By this blood I swear, blah blah blah. Yeah. Blah, blah, blah. Okay.

Wasn't anything specialer than that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so the majority of the ex-Taketa retainers swore direct homage to Ieyasu himself. So this is his personal army. Okay.

Gets dramatically larger. Many of those Taketa retainers got assigned to already established Tokugawa retainers As a way to reward them for their services like I'm gonna take most of these guys under my wing But you're also going to get Control of these territories these guys are gonna answer to you Okay, so this is this reward for his his vassals who had been giving him loyal service. Okay So We got to step away to talk about Hideyoshi for a moment here as well

Because we got to talk for a second about what he'd been up to in in 1582 and 1583 No one August eldest son had committed seppuku at hon noji Nobunaga's eldest son had committed seppuku at Honnoji Okay, because he we're surrounded we can't go to your father's aid the situation. We're not gonna be able to fight our way out You know the best thing we can do for you know, the future of the clan is You know commit suicide make sure they don't get a hold of your body, right? and so Nobunagas second and third sons Quarled over who was going to inherit

Okay, he'd a Yoshi He'd a Yoshi Used this quarrel to advance his own fortunes by backing the claim of no Nobunaga's grandson, who was conveniently an infant at the time. Naturally. So, so no, no, no, there is, there is an heir in the primary line. You know, your, your father's, your elder brother had a son. Right.

He is the rightful heir because he is the son of the eldest son right right? Yeah, it goes down that line, right? Yeah, so so you know all This this is the way it ought to be He's the heir conveniently you know I can do all the talking for him because he can't even walk yet, right? So he de Yoshi convinced Two of the Oda clan elders to take his side He formed a council that redistributed territory amongst Oda's retainers mm-hmm with with him Speaking speaking for the air right him at its head set himself up

quite neatly as the de facto heir to nobunaga right so basically I'm regent and I will of course control this child and yes I'm essentially the the power behind the throne again yeah Colonel Rich Colonel Richelieu. Yeah. So, uh, no, but I was third son, no, but I, so, so the second son undoubtedly, you know, raged and swore privately, but he didn't do anything publicly. Sure. No, but I was third son, no, but Taka, because of course, everybody's got to have similar names. Sure.

The way it is, uh, actually rose in rebellion. And in early June of 1583, uh, the rebellion came to a head at, uh, the battle of Shizu, Shizu, Gatake. To summarize, uh, he, he managed to get his army to move 50 miles in six hours In order to take his opponent completely by surprise that that would take everybody 50 miles in six hours six hours Remember what I said about Hideyoshi being the fucking Determinator? Yeah, yeah and and this is not roads. This is This is partly roads

But but it's still that's a hell of a fucking march when you're carrying like all of your shit, you know as An armored warrior that's it's okay. I'm sorry. That's not possible to go that fast For that long. That's eight and a half miles an hour. Yeah. A standard human walking can maybe clear four in an hour. Maybe. Normally it's about three in an hour, depending. And we're not talking like walking over hill and over

dale as we find the dusty trail. We're talking, we're talking like walking over hill and over dale as we find the dusty trail. We're talking. Yeah, we're talking like street roads Mm-hmm. So these guys did this double double walk, which you can do Yeah, so they're hauling ass, but they're not hauling ass like you and I would with nice shoes and all that They're they're fucking Zulu-ing it like and all that. They're fucking Zulu-ing it. Romans didn't do this shit without roads. I mean, you know, it's not, they're not barefoot or anything, but yeah.

Well, I'm sorry, how much leather? Yeah, no, it wasn't leather, it's straw, but yeah. That actually might actually help better than leather, to be honest. But like the Romans did this with leather sandals and roads. They had roads and they could clear 50 miles in a day's march. So twice as long Caring hellish yeah, like I'm carrying the whole camp with them, right? Yeah, so These guys I assume they didn't I'm willing camp. I'm willing to bet

My understanding is that it was alright everything right, everything you're not going to need to actually fight, throw it away. So light forced march. Yeah. Okay. Still, that's fucking insane. It's fucking legendary. Yeah. And so he completely routed his opposition. And like at this point, his, his position as Nobunaga's successor was, you know, almost unquestionable.

Like, you know, anybody, anybody who's complained about it has gotten the shit kicked out of him. And so he now controlled 30 provinces either directly or indirectly, making him the most powerful man in Japan. Right. Now Ieyasu set this conflict out on, on the face of it. This is an internal Oda matter. Sure.

None of his business on a practical level, it wouldn't win him anything to take a side and if he picked, and if you picked the wrong one He'd be making a really potentially very very powerful enemy right yeah, so like you know what this is this is all you guys Let me know how it turns out. Yeah, I will I will tow the line with whoever wins, but this is this This is all y'all like you know You figure it out Now after the conflict was over, now that Hideyoshi was the top dog in the country, you know, he had at least a passing interest in, in any opportunity that might be to unseat him or, or keep Hideyoshi in check.

to unseat him or, or keep Hideyoshi in check. There has been an awful lot of ink spilled and celluloid used up trying to describe the relationship between Ieyasu and Hideyoshi. Both of these guys were in nobunaga sphere for literal decades. Um, there is some indication they had significant respect for each other at the very least. Possibly they might've even been friends. They were both very ambitious men in a very ruthless age. And you might say business is business. business. So I say all of that to preface the fact that the following year in 1584, Nobunaga's second son, the one who had not said anything before, Nobukatsu rose in rebellion because Hideyoshi basically said, said all right I need everybody

In Oda to you know show up here all the other retainers come come to Osaka Castle And that that because he was the one sending out the quote-unquote invitations which were really summonses, right? Right That what he did Yoshi in the superior position and no Bokatsu without reason Considered it a usurpation like no. No. I'm you you're you're a retainer Who has who has taken on this position? I'm I'm Oda right? I have the fucking name. Yeah I'm I don't care if you're representing my nephew. Yeah, I don't yeah, I don't yeah so he then rose up in rebellion and

this time Seeing a chance to assert his own independence Or possibly take Hideo she down a peg The EAS is supported him Okay between March and June of 1584, Hideyoshi and Tokugawa commanded armies in a series of battles in and around Owarri province. They never faced each other directly on the field.

Was that purposeful or accidental? As far as we can figure, it was accidental okay, like there's nothing there's nothing that survives that gives us the indication You know I don't I don't want to wind up You know actually on the opposite end of the field front and what anything like that it was just the fortunes of war Okay, so you've got Ieyasu. Yeah, you've got Hideyoshi Mm-hmm, and you've got the second son

Okay, and did I miss something or did anybody? Did he also side with the second son or is this a three-way? Yes, who sided with the second? Okay? Okay, second son said fuck you. You're not the boss of me, right? I'm not I'm not answering your bullshit summons and then he a house who jumped in prior to that. I said, okay You know what this this is a matter of moral moral import Naturally, you know naturally, you know, okay so

each each man and yes, who Fought against high-ranking retainers of the other one. Oh, it's a Cold War shit. Yeah. Yeah and the conflict ended in the end Tokugawa's forces won a series of engagements through strong strategic thinking and just sheer spirit But at the end of it all Toyotomi still held the strategic upper hand

Just because, just because, uh, sorry, Hideo. She switched between the person last name. So, so Hideo, she, at the end of it all, Hideo, she was still in the more powerful position, even though on a tactical level, um, Ieyasu's, Ieyasu and his vassals had won multiple victories. You won more, but we've got better positioning. Yeah. Yeah. Basically. Uh, to, to simplify, um, both sides withdrew after having beaten each other up pretty good.

They arrived at a stalemate and, uh, Oda Nobukatsu, the one who'd you know risen up in rebellion given a yeah soon an excuse to fight anyway It shows to surrender in November without consulting Ieyasu He just looked at it went Yeah, you know what I I'm not this isn't a situation I'm gonna win before this turns into something where I have to kill myself, you know what I I'm not this this isn't a situation I'm gonna win before this turns into something where I have to kill myself. You know, all right fine. Sure I'll bend the knee whatever And this this took away EIS's pretext for fighting

Mm-hmm, and they they wound up he and he and Hideyoshi exchanged hostages ultimately Hideyoshi wound up sending his own mother to be a hostage of Ieyasu's. And once that offer had been made, there was no pretext that Ieyasu could keep up. And he was like, all right, fine. Right. He bent the knee. He took up vassalage under Hideyoshi. He said right fine. You're my you're my overlord, right? Okay, now the Lord tells us that when when when he found out that no Bukatsu had surrendered he also was just pissed I bet Absolutely furious well cuz his thing is like reading the room

Yeah, knowing when to apply pressure and going all in and so he'd done that and then he misread Yeah, because he was counting on somebody doing something more than they were gonna do pressure and going all in. And so he'd done that and then he misread. Yeah, because he was counting on somebody doing something more than they were going to do. Yeah. And and this this surrender, this like out of nowhere left, left him in a weaker position that then

he might have been otherwise. You know, there there were opportunities where he might have been able to reach out to other people or opportunities. You know, there were other things that could have happened, but that all got sure taken away

so Again, we don't have any evidence that there was ever any personal animus between Ieyasu and Hideyoshi Like I said before business is business like right you know if I have an opportunity to take you down a peg that makes My position stronger Yeah, you know So I show you respect. Yeah. Yeah so at this point Hideyoshi went on a fucking tear and And that is that is the most

Professional historian language I can think of to use to describe this Okay, he got himself appointed campaku or Imperial Regent in 1585 Now this was the the highest title that he could achieve Because again he came from being a commoner and so he can't be Shogun Being a commoner and so he can't be shogun Okay, okay this this title made him kind of an Oliver Cromwell Kind of figure he is he is the Lord protector of Japan He went on to subjugate the province of key

he Cri-he finally crushed the remainder of the Iko-Iki at the temple of Nega-Roji when his men set the whole temple on fire and then cut the warrior monks down as they fled the building. Okay. That same year, he conquered the island of Shikoku in June sailed sailed across the Straits and Just had his army, you know stomp over the feudal lords that were there In August he sent one of his generals to conquer one province while he conquered the neighboring one In

1586 he managed to conquer Kyushu the southern island Okay defeating the famously fanatical Shimatsu clan and In 1587 he then went on to officially exile Christian missionaries from Kyushu Okay In 1588 he ordered the confiscation of all weapons from non-Samurai in the country. In very flowery language, in the declaration, he declared that as the realm was now at peace

and the people no longer needed to defend themselves, All weapons were to be taken from civilians, melted down and used to create an image of the Buddha at the temple at Asukhadera. So if you don't like that, you don't like the Buddha. Yeah. Yeah. Why, why, why do you hate the Buddha, man? Right. Right. Why do you hate patriots? Yeah. What are you, what are you scheming that you need a spear in the back of your house for man

instead of Buddha? Yeah. Yeah. And so remember he had come up from being a commoner with a spear. And so now he ordered all the commoners with spears, give up your spears or die. Well, who better to know? Yeah. Well, yeah. Um, and this isn't the last time that there is an edict like this because this,

this was put forth and then kind of didn't fully stick and then later on it was it was fully implemented and fully more fully enforced under Tokugawa later on but this codified and solidified the barrier between commoners and the samurai class. Oh boy, howdy, yeah. Now it became, if you are holding a weapon, if you know how to use a weapon, if you have been trained to use a weapon, you are samurai. You are not a commoner.

Even if you are the lowliest archibus soldier, you are samurai. Like, this also, this also makes it so that those, um, uh, bandits can't hunt down samurai. Yeah, that's, that's, that's definitely a side effect of it. Um, or people with weapons can be accused of being those bandits. Yes. And therefore samurai retaliation and brutality against them is that much more justified is now legitimate. Yes now One theory is that this is in response to a peasant uprising in Higo province But more likely that could have been like the the inciting incident that was like, okay fine fuck this I'm done Right, but it was more likely that that could have been like the the inciting incident that was like, okay fine. Fuck this I'm done

But it was more likely at least also a way of disarming the main force of the eco Iki right what remained of them in the various parts of the country where they still were and Taking the weapons away from the warrior monks of the various temples all around the country Whether they were allied to the eco Iki or not right this was now like okay. No you you are monks. You don't need weapons Yes, I understand your temple has a tradition going back 500 years of you know warrior monks So hey, whatever. I don't care hand over your weapons your fucking monks. We're done game over right and over or we're gonna burn your temple town Sure real simple so

While he oh she did all this Ieyasu quietly hung back He didn't need to spend any resources making he do she any stronger like cool, you know At this point he had five provinces under control under his control He had loyal competent and fierce vassals He was the second most powerful warlord after Hideo. She there was a very major You know difference in their in their power level, but he is now the number two most powerful man in the country He still had to worry about the hojo to his east as they were the third most powerful family

Sure, but there wasn't significant combat between them during this period So So at this point, I think we can we can this is a good point at which to take a breather. Sure. Because there's going to be a lot of things that are going to happen very rapidly from here. Because it hasn't been. Well, yeah, but yeah.

And so I think this is going to be a good place to take a break because we have all of everything to get us to the very final act of this part of this story. And then the stage is set. And then yeah, and then I can get into kind of where where this leads us. Right. From here. So I love it. Yeah. So what what do you think up to this point?

Where what what what are you taking away from this? Well, um, the the constantly shifting nature of things and the personality-based aspects of leadership and the shifting loyalties of clans and what have you based on those loyalties is begging for a strong man to come in and codify a bunch of shit and set up institutions. And knowing, having taught world history in the high school level, when you cover Japan, you basically start with the Tokugawa Shogunate. And so I know it's coming. And so just to see how many lessons he's getting

about the mutability of fucking everything. So it's one of those, like, when I'm in charge, this shit's stopping. This is not gonna goddamn fly. Yeah. Like, and I'm trying to keep in track, and I'm failing miser at how old Um, Ieyasu is because I know that he's it's got the fucking name. So clearly it's his shogunate. Um, So how old is he during this is he like? 40s okay. So let's see. Hold on. I gotta go. I gotta go back and look at his Look at his birthdate. Sure. So

by this time Let's see He was born in 1543 and this is 15 we are pausing we are pausing at 88 So he is 45 years old 45. So he's a year younger than me. Yeah. And shit's going to happen rapidly. Yeah. And then he's going to take over everything eventually. Yeah. And then he's going to rule for a while, right? He doesn't set it up and then just die immediately. No, no. He sticks around into his seven days,

I think. That's, that is something. Also 1588. Spanish Armada. Yes. Like, this is an important year across the world. In two different island cultures. Yeah.

That's something. Interesting. Yeah. All's- that's something. Interesting. Yeah. Alright. Well, cool. That's uh, yeah. I'm- I- I am- I'm amazed at... Well, I'm- I'm- yeah, I'm amazed at how young he is during- during all of this. Cause... Yeah.

As old as I feel, he's doing a lot more for a lot longer. Yeah, he's- he's actively out on horseback in armor. Right. And or another let's see from 88 sure his his truly active military campaigning days and in about 1615. Jesus, so he's got another Close to 30 years. Yeah, so okay, so that plus the stress of Shifting Alliance is like crazy. Yeah, like oh It sounds exhausting. There's a reason I'll never be a famous person in world history on purpose Um, but god damn, that just, yeah.

Again, it's one of those, he's seeing all these lessons playing out. And so he's gonna set up a system where everything's way more codified and you can rely on institutions to carry stability forward. And it's, again, it's one of those, you know how it's one of those you know how in within democracy

Yeah contains it contains within it the the bubbling sewage that is fascism that you constantly have to Yes, and and if you don't and try to figure out how to yeah, right and. And if you don't, it does take back over, right? In this clannish feudal, would you call it feudal? Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. All right. So in this feudal system, it has within it the bubbling wellspring of a strong man coming to the fore and establishing essentially a dictatorship which is still preferred because of its stability. Yep. Very much. Yeah. Anyway, that's what I got.

All right, cool. Cool. What you gonna recommend to people to read or to? I am, I am going to recommend as a really good source for all of this. If you want to get into any of the, you know, details of the nitty gritty of who's who and all of the samurai badassery. The Cambridge history of Japan, and there's several volumes of it, is a really, really good source for anybody who is new to the subject and wants to get into studying the history and looking at interpretation of primary sources. Right now, I would say probably volume two would be the best place to start because that's where we get from ancient Japan. We're into the essentially Middle Ages, feudal era into the Sengoku Jidai. So it's a very good resource. It is scholarly,

but it's not heavy. So yeah, I would strongly recommend it. How about you? I'm going to recommend a book by Christian Goeschel, G-o-E-S-C-H-E-L, called Mussolini and Hitler, the Forging of the Fascist Alliance. Just seems appropriate. Yeah, I can see that. On the cover, it's all in red, shockingly, fascism. Big shock. But it's all in red. And what's interesting, it's a picture

of Mussolini and Hitler next to each other. And it called into question for me, because I'm like, Hitler was not the tallest man. And then I was like, well, fuck, Mussolini's a couple inches shorter than him. And yeah, turns out, and then I just, so I just looked up, Mussolini's height, five shorter than him and yeah turns out and then I just so I just looked up Mussolini's height five foot seven Hitler's five foot nine and

Then I was like really yeah, and then I was like well who else so Hirohito five five well I mean Churchill five six oh yeah, yeah, Lennon five five Not John Vladimir Francisco Franco five four That's unsurprising I'm not shocked by that at all like like a guy with a guy with that many issues Yeah, right speaking as a short guy like sure

I could have had that pegged and by the way all a lot of sources don't have Mussolini Is it at truly five seven? He's five six and a half so Like Well, yeah anyway, yeah forgot about that um Roosevelt for two Uh... Not cool, man. Oh, probably not. No. Anyway. But yeah, so yeah, I recommend Hitler and Mussolini, or I'm sorry, Mussolini and Hitler, the forging of the Fascist Alliance. All right.

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