Kanji Press

Dust gathers and becomes a mountain, a river rises with wind and rain, and a dragon was born to become powerful as it gathered strength. In the country of Japan, during the reign of Emperor Gonara [1532-1555], Heaven sent a hero who quelled disturbances in the country, brought peace to the people, and sent an army to Korea¹ where he was feared as a thunder god. He was called was a son of the peasant Chikuami of Nakamura village in the Aichi district of Owari province [Aichi prefecture]. As an adult, he was called Kinoshita Tōkichirō and later Lord Hashiba as he advanced in his career. After unifying Japan, he became a regent to the emperor and was called Taikō Hideyoshi, or Retired Regent Hideyoshi with the First Rank. Finally he was worshipped as Toyokuni Daimyōjin, Great Bright Deity of the Bountiful Country.² Even old peasant women in marketplaces remembered and admired him. This is truly a good example of a man of lowly status achieving high promotion through his efforts and merit.

In tracing his ancestors, we have to go back to the time when the Hosokawa and the Yamana families fought each other in the Ōnin era [1467-1469]. Since that time the country remained in turmoil, as if entangled in threads, for more than one hundred years. Many warlords took up arms in various provinces and fought each other, killing their fathers, lords, and superiors. Both emperors and peasants found themselves in danger as if stepping on thin ice while they wandered from one place to another seeking a safe refuge in which to settle.

There was once a monk called Shōsei in Saitō on Mount Hiei. He meditated daily on the confusion of people who would never find peace of soul and would eventually fall into hell owing to their ignorance of the Buddhist Law. He believed that the only way to gain salvation was to bring peace to the country, and he took a vow to pray to the deity of the shrine on Chikubu Island³ in Lake Biwa. So he went to the shrine and prayed to the deity for one hundred days.

At dawn on the hundredth day, a divine lady appeared to him in a dream and told him, "Having peace and turmoil in a country is like having cold and hot seasons. After the hot, the cold will follow. Now the turmoil in this country will last for a while, but since you have prayed to the deity so fervently your wish will be eventually fulfilled. A son will be given to you who will pacify the country. So quickly return to secular life and have a family."

After he woke up Shōsei was very pleased at the fulfillment of his vow, and he descended the mountain and returned to his native village in Asaki district of ōmi province. Soon he married and still wished for a child while making a living by farming. After a time he and his wife moved to Nakamura village in Aichi district of Owari province. There he called himself Nakamura Masamori, after the village's name, and hence became the ancestor of our hero, Hideyoshi.