Popular representations of the past are everywhere in Japan, from cell phone charms to manga, from television dramas to video games to young people dressed as t

Arguably the greatest military commander in the history of the samurai, Toyotomi Hideyoshi rose from the ranks of the peasantry to rule over all Japan. A studen

Here is the first full-length biography in English of the most important political figure in premodern Japan. Hideyoshi—peasant turned general, military geniu

Hideyoshi, who called himself the Swordless Samurai, is the Japanese Horatio Alger. He was of peasant origin, but by bonding to powerful Lord Nobunaga, and bein