Libmonster ID: JP-1556
Author(s) of the publication: S. A. ARUTYUNOV

Moscow, Nauka Publ. 1984. 447 p.

It is hardly possible to name a more vivid and significant figure in the medieval history of Japan than the outstanding commander, politician and reformer of the second half of the XVI century. Toyotomi Hideyoshi. His work embodied and reflected all the contradictions of that era. It is with Hideyoshi that the transition from civil strife to centralized power, from various forms of local self-government to dictatorship, from expansion to a policy of isolation, from Christianization to the persecution of Christianity is connected. In fact, it was Hideyoshi who created Tokugawa Japan. It is therefore understandable that the book aroused the interest of a corresponding member. Academy of Sciences of the USSR A. A. Iskenderov.

It introduces the reader not only to the country's history, but also to the traditional values that the influential circles of modern Japan continue to appeal to. At the beginning of the book, a general idea is given about the main events in the history of Japan in the XIV-first half of the XVI century. When the old aristocracy was replaced by the military-feudal nobility of a new formation and the country actually consisted of many warring principalities, whose owners sought to expand their borders, establish dominance in the whole region, feeding unrealistic hopes for most of them seizure of power over the whole country (p. 35). In this fight, you can-

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there were about a dozen of the most powerful contenders for hegemony pouring in. In the middle of the 16th century, new types of weapons, primarily firearms, were widely used due to the beginning of contacts with Europeans. Powerful fortified castles of a new type were built everywhere. Small-scale farming was ruined, new food and industrial crops were cultivated, mining and manufacturing industries, and overseas trade developed. The military-political situation in the country increasingly raised the problem of forming a single centralized state.

Under these conditions, Toyotomi Hideyoshi grew up and made his career. A. A. Iskenderov recreates the atmosphere and events that marked Hideyoshi's early years, refuting widespread legends about both his fictional noble ancestors and his parents ' belonging to the poorest and lowest strata. The book emphasizes that Hideyoshi's family belonged to the meshu, owners of nominal allotments, who, although they did not belong to the samurai, still - in their social status - were quite close to it. In the future, Hideyoshi, as can be seen from the facts presented in the book, fully accepted all the values and attitudes of the feudal class, and the sometimes ostentatious "democracy" that he displayed was only part of a far-sighted policy aimed at gaining popularity among different segments of the population.

The book details Hideyoshi's service under General Oda Nobunaga, the first unifier of Japan, which he began as a private and soon became a major military leader. The author draws a controversial, vivid personality of Oda Nobunaga, gives a description of his many-sided activities. The unexpected death of the powerful Oda Nobunaga in his prime in 1582 opened Hideyoshi's path to sole power.

A. A. Iskenderov does not limit himself to describing Hideyoshi's life path, his military and administrative activities, but also draws a panorama of the social and ideological life of Japan at that time. The most important outcome of Hideyoshi's activities, in addition to uniting the country and bringing the recalcitrant feudal lords to submission, was agrarian reform, tax regulation, the seizure of weapons from the peasants, and the consistent separation of peasants and samurai. The author should emphasize that Hideyoshi purposefully destroyed precisely the most politically proactive layer intermediate between the peasantry and the samurai (from which he himself came), which supplied the leaders of peasant uprisings. According to Hideyoshi, as a result of his reform, two homogeneous and clearly delineated estates were to be formed - unarmed, uncomplaining peasants, serviceable suppliers of the main currency of the country - rice, and weapon-wielding, but detached from the land, living only on rations, ready to go wherever they are ordered, disciplined samurai warriors.

The author does not agree with those researchers who believe that Hideyoshi copied Nobunaga in everything, was his blind imitator and follower. Hideyoshi didn't follow Nobunaga's path blindly. However, analyzing his activities, it is impossible not to come to the conclusion that A. A. Iskenderov somewhat exaggerated the independence and originality of Hideyoshi's actions, who, as a rule, carried out on an all-Japanese scale what Oda Nobunaga, Shibata Katsuie, Tesokabe Mototika and other large feudal lords had already successfully carried out on a local scale. It is characteristic that when Hideyoshi lacked such a clear role model, he behaved rather inconsistently, as was the case, for example, in the question of attitude to Christianity.

Even such an event as the aggression in Korea (1592-1598), which, according to A. A. Iskenderov, was Hideyoshi's biggest and most serious personal mistake, was not invented by him. The conquest of China was planned by Oda Nobunaga (p. 95). A. A. Iskenderov, like most historians who have written about Hideyoshi, except, of course, his obvious apologists, is inclined to call these plans "delusional", to portray them as a manifestation of Hideyoshi's senile degradation, recklessness, adventurism, etc. The Korean campaign ended in complete failure, resulting in huge human and material losses. But if we take into account the class positions of the Japanese feudal elite, it is hardly legitimate to consider it recklessness. The defeat of the Japanese army and navy was primarily due to the heroic resistance of the Korean people, which was unexpected for the invaders (while the court and command behaved cowardly-

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Li Sung - sin's extraordinary organizational and naval genius, as well as a number of random circumstances that could not have been foreseen. We must not forget that just half a century later, China was really conquered by the Manchus, who had no more human and material resources than Japan at that time. Another question is how this conquest affected the ethnic history of the conquerors themselves. The takeover of Korea and China, of course, did not correspond to the interests of the working people of Japan, as did the agrarian reform of "kenti". But the feudal elite was interested in the war itself, because the samurai needed something to do in the conditions of unexpected internal peace. To a certain extent, the author also acknowledges this (see p. 307).

There are proverbs in Japanese folklore (p.385) about the methods and merits of Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. However, it is not known how the history of Japan would have gone if the power from Nobunaga had passed directly to Ieyasu. As history would have it, Hideyoshi's 16-year rule intervened between them, and all the major changes, including the division of estates and the transition from rough military methods of government to more sophisticated police methods, took place under him, although the Tokugawa regime made improvements to these measures.

According to the author, the question of the extent to which Hideyoshi's rule is justified by the emergence of bourgeois relations in Japan needs special research. A. A. Iskenderov is inclined to believe that the transformations of that era had long-term consequences that "determined the nature and features of Japan's development in modern times" (p.240). He writes extensively about Hideyoshi's support for the private enterprise activities of the commercial and industrial community (p. 245). One could put it even more clearly: Hideyoshi's policy of external expansion and expansion of foreign trade relations, all his internal measures objectively contributed to the intensive development of bourgeois relations in Japan, and it was under Hideyoshi that they reached such a development that the restrictive and isolationist measures of the Tokugawa regime aimed at preserving the feudal system could not contain.

There are some particular shortcomings in the book. Unfortunately, the author used European sources that are contemporary to the epoch (reports by L. Fronsch, F. Xavier, A. Valignani) not in the original, but in translation or transmission in other European languages, mainly English and German. Translating them, in turn, into Russian, he in a number of places allowed unjustified modernization of the vocabulary and style of the source (p. 146, 185, 186, 187 and many others), which is especially annoying against the background of how reliably, while preserving the color of the era, he transmitted the phraseology and style of Japanese sources of the same time. (see pages 119, 134, etc.). You can also complain about the lack of a dedicated bibliography in the book.

The reviewed book is perceived as a scientific, strictly documented and at the same time fascinating work that gives a vivid and vivid impression of the most interesting era in the history of Japan.

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S. A. ARUTYUNOV, A. A. ISKENDEROV. TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI // Tokyo: Japan (ELIB.JP). Updated: 24.01.2025. URL: https://elib.jp/m/articles/view/A-A-ISKENDEROV-TOYOTOMI-HIDEYOSHI (date of access: 10.02.2025).

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