Japan - Azuchi-Momoyama

  General Description   The Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1603 CE), also known as the Shokuho period, is named for the castles built by the warrior rulers Oda Nobunaga (Azuchi) and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Momoyama). ^[1] The Azuchi-Momoyama period marked the beginning of a process of national unification after the disorder of the Warring States period. ^[2] The period starts with the rise to power of the military commander and regional lord Oda Nobunaga. With his defeat of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki, he set about bringing the lesser daimyō (lords) under the control of a single military command. ^{[3] [1]} In 1568 Nobunaga marched on, and occupied, the imperial capital of Kyoto, gaining effective control of the government. ^[1]
After the death of Nobunaga in 1582, his general Toyotomi Hideyoshi continued this process, gaining control of most of Japan by 1590 CE. In an attempt to expand Japan’s territory overseas, Hideyoshi led two unsuccessful invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597. ^[1] Hideyoshi’s death in 1598, leaving a council of lords in charge until his young son came of age, sparked off a succession struggle. The general Tokugawa Ieyasu, a former ally of Oda Nobunaga, emerged victorious from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, cementing his power. After his victory, he was appointed shogun in 1603, founding the Tokugawa Shogunate which would dominate Japan for the next 200 years. ^[4]
Population and political organization
While the generals Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu consolidated power into a military confederation, the emperor remained the nominal head of state throughout the period. ^[5] Although the older social order remained largely intact, with peasants subservient to feudal lords, Oda Nobunaga’s policy of annexing lands and awarding them to his loyal retainers reshaped the power relations between lords and enabled the consolidation of his own power. ^[3] Toyotomi Hideyoshi was instrumental in creating a strict and finely graded social hierarchy of warriors, farmers, artisans, and merchants, a structure that would be institutionalized in the succeeding Tokugawa period. ^[2]
Population estimates for the area under Azuchi-Momoyama control range from roughly 17 million in 1500 CE to 22 million in 1600 CE. ^[6] The imperial capital, Kyoto, remained the largest settlement with approximately 300,000 inhabitants. ^[7]

[1]: (Deal 2005, 11) William E. Deal. 2005. Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[2]: (Deal 2005, 12) William E. Deal. 2005. Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[3]: (Hall 2008, 1) John Whitney Hall. 2008. ’Introduction’, in The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 4: Early Modern Japan, edited by Kozo Yamamura, 1-39. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[4]: (Deal 2005, 12, 17) William E. Deal. 2005. Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[5]: (Deal 2005, 3) William E. Deal. 2005. Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[6]: (McEvedy and Jones 1978, 181) Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones. 1978. Atlas of World Population History. London: Penguin Books.

[7]: (Chandler 1987) Tertius Chandler. 1987. Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press.