The Impregnable Castle, and the Confrontation With a Man Who Already Ruled Japan
歴史事件
The Odawara Castle that Soun had seized was greatly expanded under his son Ujitsuna and grandson Ujiyasu, becoming one of the strongest fortresses in the Kanto region. It withstood assaults from Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen, two of the most formidable commanders of the age, and earned a reputation as truly "impregnable." Everything changed in 1590. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had already subdued Shikoku and Kyushu and was, in effect, already the ruler of Japan, crossed the Hakone mountains with an army said to number 200,000, determined to bring the Later Hojo — father and son, Ujimasa and Ujinao, the last major power still refusing to submit — to their knees. After roughly three months under siege, Odawara Castle surrendered with barely a fight, and the Later Hojo clan's five generations and roughly hundred years of rule came to an end. For Hideyoshi, the Odawara campaign was not a battle to become the ruler of Japan. It was the last piece he needed to complete a unification he had, for all practical purposes, already achieved.
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