Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Early Life

First, the conclusion: if Toyotomi Hideyoshi's early life had to be described with one character, it would be "mystery." If with one phrase, it would be "no such person found."

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was probably born in Nakamura, Owari Province, in 1537. No one knew who his father was, and his precise origins could not be determined. All the popular claims circulating today were far-fetched conjectures, with no reliable materials to substantiate them.

The only point that could be stated with certainty was that Toyotomi Hideyoshi was of low birth, most likely a peasant.

Yamashina Tokitsune, son of Yamashina Tokitsugu, recorded in his diary, Tokitsune's Diary, that when Toyotomi Hideyoshi was campaigning against the Kantō Hōjō clan, he wrote to Hōjō Ujimasa: "I, Hideyoshi, grew up alone from childhood."

Hōkan, written by Takenaka Shigekado, son of Takenaka Hanbei, recorded that Hideyoshi came from Nakamura in Owari Province, but that neither his father nor mother could be identified.

The surviving Mōri Family Documents contained a letter left by Ankokuji Ekei, which recorded: in his youth, Hideyoshi had been nothing more than a beggar, not even worthy of being called a trash fish.

Uwai Kakuken's Diary, kept by Uwai Kakuken, a retainer of the Shimazu clan, recorded that when Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Kyushu, the Shimazu clan cursed in fury: Hashiba was merely a man of unknown origins, while the Shimazu clan had been a distinguished warrior house since Minamoto no Yoritomo.

There was an even more ridiculous account in Tenshōki, written by Ōmura Yuko. It claimed that Hideyoshi's mother was the daughter of a court noble and had once served the Emperor, implying that Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the Emperor's son...

History of Japan, written by the Portuguese missionary Luís Fróis, recorded that in 1587, a richly dressed young man entered Osaka Castle claiming to be Hideyoshi's brother. Hideyoshi sought out his own mother and pressed her for answers, but could not get anything coherent out of her.

Hideyoshi then ordered the man arrested and beheaded as a warning to the public.

A few months later, Hideyoshi heard that he supposedly had a younger sister in Owari Province. He pretended to send people to bring her to Osaka, but the moment she arrived, he ordered her executed.

These two incidents carried more than a hint of trying to cover up the truth. Some therefore speculated that Hideyoshi's mother might have engaged in some less-than-respectable work in her early years, leaving Hideyoshi and his siblings unable even to know who their father was.

In truth, the absence of any records already said something. After all, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the man who unified Japan. Once a person of such standing rose to power, it was impossible that he would leave absolutely no record of his father.

Toyotomi Hidetsugu's father, Yasuke, at least benefited enough to change his surname to Miyoshi.

This suggested that either Toyotomi Hideyoshi's father was truly so lowly that Hideyoshi was ashamed to mention him.

Or Toyotomi Hideyoshi himself did not know who his father was.

But whichever was the case, it confirmed that Toyotomi Hideyoshi's origins were extremely humble.

As for once-popular claims that he was the son of Kinoshita Yaemon, that his mother remarried Chikuami and gave birth to Toyotomi Hidenaga, and so on, there was no evidence whatsoever to prove them.

The earliest record of such claims appeared in Taikō Soseiki, compiled during the Edo period, but its credibility was extremely low.

As for records concerning Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the earliest extant historical source discovered so far was a land-confirmation document signed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1565, bearing the signature "Kinoshita Tōkichirō."

This showed that by 1565, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had already become a samurai under Oda Nobunaga with landed income and retainers of his own, and moreover a high-ranking samurai capable of signing official documents.

Yet in the twenty-eight years before that, from 1537 to 1565, there was not a single record concerning Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

The familiar tales of warming Nobunaga's straw sandals, serving as kitchen steward at Kiyosu Castle, selling needles in Tōtōmi Province, building Sunomata One-Night Castle, and the like were basically stories invented during the Edo period, or even as late as 1906.

Of course, this was not to say those accounts were baseless fabrications, but rather that no materials from Hideyoshi's own era existed to verify them.

That was a feature of Japan's Warring States history. Many historical figures and events had no official records preserved; everything relied on rumors or diaries recorded by certain samurai at the time, along with novels from the Edo period.

Therefore, everyone could offer their own views on Hideyoshi's origins, but there was no need to argue over them, because even the Japanese themselves had never fully figured it out...