#9 Explain the efforts of three powerful leaders to unify Japan
Japan was unified by three great men Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Oda Nobunaga was the person who started the unification of Japan. Oda Nobunaga was the first person to see the importance of firearms and used them in his army. The use of firearms and gunpowder allowed him to conquer armies that were several times larger than his own. Also he added iron cladding to his ship which made his navy unstoppable. Oda Nobunaga was known to be very violent and had no discipline. It is said that during funerals he acted very outrageously and kept violently throwing funeral incense into the fire. But it was due to his brutal behavior that he was able to defeat many of his enemies and almost conquer Japan. He was later killed by his Generals but his trusted follower Toyotomi Hideyoshi took over.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the first person to completely conquer Japan. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was considered one of the most prominent figures in Japanese history. After his death he was also made a Shinto Deity. Oda Nobunaga was able to gain control many lands of Japan through force. This also caused the people to have lots of revolts against him. So Hideyoshi decided to conquer Japan differently. Hideyoshi preferred to use more peaceful methods. This method was more beneficial to him. This allowed the people to like him better and he had less revolts. One thing that Hideyoshi didn't like was foreigners. He kicked out all the foreigners who came to the land. After many long years he finished conquering Japan. In his last years of his life, he tried to give his rule over to his son Hideyori. The only problem was that his son was only five years old. So Toyotomi Hideyoshi gave his son five regents. One of them was Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was not successful in making his son the next ruler of Japan. One of the Regents took over instead and he was Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokugawa Ieyasu's life was filled with tragedies. So Tokugawa decided that he should be peaceful. To gain and conquer land, he made peace treaties with the other countries instead of attacking them with force. Tokugawa Ieyasu set up the capital of Japan in Edo which is today known as Tokyo. As Shogun he saw that the people of Japan were growing ties with the Europeans. When he came to power he drove all the foreigners out and wouldn't let anyone leave Japan. Because of this Japan went into a state of isolation. His empire fell in 1867 after this the power shifted back to the emperors.
