e
minister of State (dajo daijiri) and took the family name of
Toyotomi. It is stated, but the evidence is not conclusive, that in
order to reach these high posts, he had to be adopted into the house
of a Fujiwara noble. He had been a Taira when he served under
Nobunaga, and to become a Fujiwara for courtly purposes was not
likely to cause him much compunction.

THE MONKS, SHIKOKU, AND ETCHU

Immediately on the termination of the Komaki War, Hideyoshi took
steps to deal effectually with the three enemies by whom his
movements had been so much hampered, namely, the Buddhist priests of
Kii, the Chosokabe clan in Shikoku, and the Sasa in Etchu. It has
already been stated that the priests of Kii had their headquarters at
Negoro, where there stood the great monastery of Dai-Dembo-In,
belonging to the Shingon sect and enjoying almost the repute of
Koya-san. Scarcely less important was the monastery of Sawaga in the
same province. These two centres of religion had long been in
possession of large bodies of trained soldiers whose ranks were from
time to time swelled by the accession of wandering samurai (ronin).
The army despatched from Osaka in the spring of 1585 to deal with
these warlike monks speedily captured the two monasteries, and, for
purposes of intimidation, crucified a number of the leaders. For a
time, Koya-san itself was in danger, several of the fugitive monks
having taken refuge there. But finally Koya-san was spared in
consideration of surrendering estates yielding twenty-one thousand
koku of rice, which properties had been violently seized by the
monasteries in former years.

Three months later, Hideyoshi turned his arms against the Chosokabe
sept in Shikoku. This being an enterprise of large dimensions, he
entrusted its conduct to five of his most competent generals, namely,
Ukita Hideiye, Hachisuka Iemasa, Kuroda Nagamasa, Kikkawa Motoharu,
and Kohayakawa Takakage. Hideyoshi himself would have assumed the
direct command, and had actually set out for that purpose from Osaka,
when couriers met him with intelligence that less than one month's
fighting had brought the whole of the Island of the Four Provinces
into subjection. He therefore turned eastward, and entering Etchu,
directed the operations, in progress there under the command of Maeda
Toshiiye against Sasa Narimasa. This campaign lasted seven days, and
ended in the surrender of Narimasa, to whom Hideyoshi showed
remarkable clemency, inasmuch as he