He was the first person in history to become a Kampaku who was not born a noble. He then passed the position and title of Kampaku to his nephew, Toyotomi Hidetsugu. Hideyoshi rose from a peasant background as a retainer of the prominent lord Oda Nobunaga to become one of the most powerful men in Japanese history. Hideyoshi launched the Japanese invasions of Korea in to initial success, but eventual military stalemate damaged his prestige before his death in Hideyoshi's young son and successor Toyotomi Hideyori was displaced by Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara in which would lead to the founding of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Hideyoshi's rule covers most of the AzuchiβMomoyama period of Japan, partially named after his castle, Momoyama Castle. Hideyoshi left an influential and lasting legacy in Japan, including Osaka Castle , the Tokugawa class system , the restriction on the possession of weapons to the samurai, and the construction and restoration of many temples, some of which are still visible in Kyoto.
Very little is known for certain about Toyotomi Hideyoshi before , when he begins to appear in surviving documents and letters. His autobiography starts in , but in it, Hideyoshi spoke very little about his past.
According to tradition, Hideyoshi was born on 16 February according to the lunar Japanese calendar 17 March according to the Julian calendar ; 27 March Proleptic Gregorian calendar in Nakamura , Owari Province present-day Nakamura Ward , Nagoya , in the middle of the chaotic Sengoku period under the collapsed Ashikaga Shogunate. Hideyoshi had no traceable samurai lineage, and his father Kinoshita Yaemon was an ashigaru β a peasant employed by the samurai as a foot soldier.
Yaemon died in when Hideyoshi was seven years old. Many legends describe Hideyoshi being sent to study at a temple as a young man, but he rejected temple life and went in search of adventure. In , Hideyoshi became an ashigaru for the powerful Oda clan , the rulers of his home province of Owari , now headed by the ambitious Oda Nobunaga.
