The cat is playing -
I took it and covered it with my paw
fly on the window …
Issa
At the site of the Battle of Sekigahara, today an information and educational complex is arranged: the places of command posts are marked, paths are drawn, and next to them are life-sized figures of fighting warriors. There are more than 240 such figures in total. There is also a museum full of weapons and armor, some of which can be tried on for a fee. These are the figures of two warriors carrying important trophies - severed heads. Their track record will record how many heads each of them chopped off and, accordingly, he will be given a reward in koku! More heads - more koku!
However, it just so happened that after Oda's death, history made a big zigzag and gave power in Japan to someone who had no rights to it, but had many soldiers under his command. So it happened not only in Japan … The new ruler, who won the title of kampaku from the emperor, was essentially the rootless son of a woodcutter (or peasant) Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Oda raised him again, and only because, before giving his master slippers-zori, he warmed them on his chest! It was he who dealt with the rebel Akechi (1582), and then received a great favor from the emperor - the post of regent-kampaku (1585), and then the “great minister” (daizo-daidzin, 1586), that is, he united all the power in his hands in Japan. He was also granted the surname of the aristocratic family Toyotomi, which was also considered by everyone as an exclusive privilege, and then finally completed what Oda was working on - in 1591 he united the whole country under his command. Moreover, in the mind and state wisdom (and everyone recognized this!) Hideyoshi was impossible to refuse. He drew up the first general Japanese land registry, which over the next three centuries carried out the taxation of the population, ordered the peasants and townspeople to surrender all their weapons, conducting the famous "sword hunt", then he divided Japanese society into classes and established their gradation. In a word, he carried out such important administrative reforms that after them little more could have been invented. At the same time, he banned Christianity in Japan (1587) and began an aggression against neighboring Korea (1592-1598).
Here he is - the traitor Kobayakawa Hideaki.
However, there are spots even on the Sun. For a long time Hideyoshi could not conceive an heir, which means he could not transfer his power into his hands and found a dynasty. This problem worried him to the extreme. In general, let us note that the problem of an heir or successor is the greatest problem of any dictator or even a legitimate reformer ruler, and one who does not pay any attention to it is simply a fool. But Hideyoshi was not like that, and back in 1584 he adopted the fifth son of a samurai, Kinoshita Iesada (his cousin) and a nephew, who was given the name Hasiba Nidetoshi. This was common practice in Japan. Noble people had several wives, married and divorced, had concubines and had many children. Someone they recognized, someone not, but if they did not have children, they did not hesitate to buy children from the peasants, or take them from relatives and then they were adopted. With the signing of the adoption document and the rights transferred to the child, no claims arose against him, and he became a full member of the clan. Although, of course, if he had brothers from legitimate wives or concubines, and it was he, and not they who received more land or rice coke, then no one prevented them from hating him with fierce hatred. Or, on the contrary, to love, it all depended on the character and upbringing.
But on this uki-yo Utagawa Yoshiiku, he looks like a very mature husband.
Be that as it may, becoming the son of a Kampaku, Hasiba received everything one could dream of: excellent upbringing, the best education in Japan, and … the best swords!
And then his own son Hideyori was born, so the foster child immediately turned out to be a burden for him. It was decided to give him to Kobayakawa Takakage (1533-1597), Hideyoshi's loyal vassal and comrade-in-arms, who officially adopted him. The boy received the new name Kobayakawa Hideaki and began to be raised in a new family. In his life, little has changed, but only about the position of the Kampaku he no longer had to dream, Hideyori took his place. But then Kobayakawa Takakage died (1597) and left his adopted son an inheritance: lands in the Iyo provinces on the island of Shikoku and Chikuzen in Kyushu with a total income of 350 thousand koku of rice, which immediately put this young man, and in 1597 he was only 20 years old, in the position of one of the richest people in Japan.
The famous Japanese screen depicting the Battle of Sekigahara. (Osaka Castle Museum)
In the same year, Hideyoshi made him commander-in-chief of the army in Korea. During the battle at Keiki, he promptly brought reinforcements and, fighting in the ranks of his soldiers, captured the enemy commander! But it is one thing to fight with swords with ordinary samurai and quite another to command an army! The General Inspector of the Army Ishida Mitsunari, in his reports to Toyotomi, criticized his command, in addition, Toyotomi himself was extremely annoyed by many of the orders of his former son, which he considered reckless.
The punishment that followed was severe and humiliating. He was deprived of land on the island of Kyushu, causing his income to fall to 120 thousand koku, and sent into exile. It was only shortly before his death in 1598 that the almighty dictator changed his mind and returned to him his possessions of Chikuzen, Chikugo and Buzen.
Most likely, it was not Toyotomi that blamed Kabayakawa for this shame, but Ishida Mitsunari. After all, it was he who began to write "denunciations" on him, and it was from him that the "father" learned about what kind of talentless commander he turned out to be.
Japanese arquebus taneegashima. (Tokyo National Museum)
When, after Hideyoshi's death, a destructive civil war broke out in the country and the era of "war of all against all" could well repeat itself, Kobayakawa Hideaki also took an active part in it. And he chose the side of Ishida Mitsunari, because he was more loyal, let's say, a servant of Hideyoshi than the same Ieyasu Tokugawa.
Battle of Sekigahara: the sixth screen.
But these were all words. And this is what no one should ever forget about. Words don't mean anything. Only two things matter - business and … money, or who gets what for their business! In 1600, he was in Osaka and repeatedly announced that he would support Ishida Mitsunari against Tokugawa Ieyasu, but at the same time he conducted secret negotiations with him and even then planned to betray Mitsunari at the most crucial moment for that moment. However, Ishida was also not a fool, and in order to finally make Kobayakawa his ally, he promised him two land holdings around Osaka and even give him a post … kampaku.
In the battle of Sekigahara, in which, as everyone understood, the fate of Japan was to be decided, Kobayakawa Hideaki had a large force of 16,500 people. They were located on the extreme right flank of the West Army (Ishida Mitsunari) on Mount Matsuoyama or simply Matsuo. The battle began and went on with varying success, but Kobayakawa did not participate in it, and its other participant, Shimazu Yoshihiro, was engaged in repelling Ieyasu's soldiers who were attacking him, but did not attack himself. The decisive moment of the battle came when the Tokugawa army began to push through the defenses of the "western" and thereby exposed its left flank. Ishida Mitsunari noticed this and ordered to light a signal fire - ordering the Kobayakawa detachment to launch an attack. But Kobayakawa did not move. However, he did not attack Mitsunari either. Ieyasu was tired of these hesitations. "He must decide immediately which side he is on!" - he declared to his generals and ordered them to open fire on him to see what his reaction would be. Kobayakawa Hideaki realized that he hesitated a little longer and there would be no mercy on either side. And he ordered his troops to attack the positions of the western army of Ishida Mitsunari. Seeing this, standing a little further away, Wakizaka Yasuharu, the daimyo and the admiral from Awaji Island, who commanded a detachment of a thousand spears, followed his example and also changed Mitsunari. His spearmen, together with the spearmen and arquebusiers of the Kabayakawa, struck a strong blow at the center of the "western" troops, while the main forces of the Tokugawa army attacked them from the front. Immediately there were shouts: “Treason! Betrayal!" and Mitsunari's army began to melt before our eyes, people began to scatter and hide in the bushes.
Nobori and sashimono Kobayakawa Hideaki. The black nobori depicts a white orchid.
Only a small detachment of Shimazu managed to break through the ranks of the advancing "eastern" and get out to the rear, where there were … detachments of the "western" under the command of Hirue Kikkawa and Terumoto Mori. Learning from him that the battle was essentially lost, Kikkwa immediately declared himself a supporter of the Tokugawa and thereby prevented Merumoto from attacking the Tokugawa from the rear! That is, three people betrayed Mitsunari in this battle at once, but, of course, Kabayakawa's betrayal was the most significant and effective.
Admiral Wakizaka, also a traitor.
Well, Kabayakawa appeared before Tokugawa and bowed before him, and he showed him a place in his retinue.
Then, as a Tokugawa commander, Kobayakawa Hideaki conducted a successful siege of Sawayama Castle, which was defended by Mitsunari's father and brother: Ishida Masatsugu and Ishida Masazumi.
Mon Kobayakawa Hideaki
The reward was the lands of the Ukita clan, which included the provinces of Bizen and Mimasaka on the island of Honshu, with a total income of 550,000 koku, which made him one of the richest people in Japan, since the income of Tokugawa himself was "only" two million koku!
Kobayakawa Hideaki's headquarters on Mount Matsuo.
No one, of course, criticized him for this act and did not even stutter about calling him "a traitor from Mount Matsuo." But apparently, he did not forget about it for a minute and, most likely, it was precisely such reflections that brought him to bad: on December 1, 1602, 25-year-old Kobayakawa Hideaki went crazy and suddenly died, leaving no heirs behind. After his death, the Kobayakawa clan ceased to exist, and its lands were transferred by the shogunate to the neighboring Ikeda clan.
