Hideyori Toyotomi was the second son of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the great military leader who unified Japan at the end of the sixteenth century.
Background
Hideyori Toyotomi was born on 8 September 1593 in Osaka Castle. As a child he was known by the name Hiroimaru. His mother was Yodogimi, the eldest daughter of Oda Nobunaga’s younger sister Odani-no-kata. Hideyoshi, because his first son had died in infancy, doted on the boy and had him brought up at Fushimi Castle in Kyoto. Lacking a son of his own, Hideyoshi had earlier adopted an heir named Hidetsugu, but in 1595 Hide- tsugu incurred his foster father’s displeasure and was forced to commit suicide. This left Hideyori as sole heir.
In 1598 Hideyoshi, aware that death was near, called upon Tokugawa Ieyasu and the other powerful military leaders of the time to support his son, repeatedly demanding that they swear oaths of fealty, and succumbed to illness shortly after.
Career
In 1599 Hideyori, in accordance with his father’s dying wishes, took up residence in Osaka Castle. Meanwhile Tokugawa Ieyasu continued to grow in power, and relations between him and such rivals as Ishida Mitsunari became increasingly strained. The result was the great battle of Sekigahara in 1600 between Ieyasu and his foliowers and Ishida Mitsunari and the other military leaders who supported Hideyori, which ended in the defeat of the latter. Hideyori, however, was allowed to remain in Osaka Castle and to retain dominion over the three nearby provinces of Settsu, Kawachi, and Izumi.
In the winter of 1614, however, Ieyasu found an excuse to launch an attack on Osaka Castle, and though hostilities were suspended for a time, a second attack in the summer of 1615 ended in the total defeat of Hideyori’s supporters. Hideyori and his mother, Yodogimi, committed suicide while the castle went up in flames about them.
Connections
In 1603, Hideyori’s military supporters, in an effort to ensure his safety, arranged a marriage between him and Sen-hime, the daughter of Tokugawa Hidetada, Ieyasu’s third son.