Tenchijin is rapidly coming closer to its culmination. The young Hideyori has been born and the Toyotomi heir crisis is now coming to boil with Mitsunari confronting Hidetsugu with the charge that he is suspected of treason. Mitsunari's evil smile at the end of the episode after Hidetsugu accused him of causing his downfall shows that Mitsunari is now rapidly sliding into his manipulative and destructive ways and making many enemies.
Earlier, Mitsunari was confronted by several of the other great Daimyo, mainly Tokugawa Ieyasu and Mori Terumoto, who have accused Mitsunari of manipulating Hideyoshi and causing great hardship for the daimyo. Below is Ieyasu confronting Mitsunari. Ultimately it is Ieyasu versus Mitsunari in the epic confrontation at Sekigahara.
One of the enemies that Mitsunari makes that he will later truly regret is one of Hideyoshi's adopted sons, Hidetoshi. Mitsunari has Hidetoshi removed from any influence or power in the Toyotomi family by forcing the Mori clan to adopt Hidetoshi. This causes Hidetoshi great anger and hatred towards Mitsunari and he will eventually have his revenge against Mitsunari at the battle of Sekigahara. Below is Hidetoshi begging the Uesugi for assistance with his plight.
Very Cool, I'm looking forward to seeing this myself. The screen shots are a nice touch. Japanese history is full of awesome twists and turns. Makes some good drama. Not to mention a little sword play now and then.
ReplyDeleteThe episodes are getting pretty exciting. Everything is coming together now.
ReplyDeleteI've been watching Tenchijin with my mother who is a huge (Japanese) history buff. I was looking up Kanetsugu for information and came across your blog. Very interesting!
ReplyDeleteThank you. As you can see, I am a big J history fan as well.
ReplyDeleteOh no! Reel history strikes again!
ReplyDeleteKinoshita Hidetoshi (who is more commonly known by the first name Hideaki) was not adopted by the main Mori branch, but rather one of its related houses-- the Kobayakawa. He changed his first name to Hideaki after this adoption.
The other big mistake is that Hideaki was adopted some time before he went over to Korea as the nominal commander in chief of Hideyoshi's second invasion of Korea. Actually, Hideaki even became head of the Kobayakawa house a year before going to Korea. Ishida Mitsunari also went to Korea for this campaign as something of an inspector general, and wrote nasty things about all the main generals back to Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi didn't really dig what Hideaki did at the siege of Ulsan, according to what Mitsunari wrote, and this is what got Hideaki into temporary trouble with Hideyoshi (Hideaki was restored in his original fief after Hideyoshi reconsidered things.) However, this episode was the point of contention between Hideaki and Mitsunari that would help set the stage for Hideaki's decision to switch sides at Sekigahara. It should also be noted that the Mori never moved their forces off their mountain position during the battle either.
Thanks for the info Obenjo. I knew that the Mori did not move from their position at Sekigahara and therefore did not support Mitsunari. And yet they were somewhat punished by Ieyasu later. It is my understanding that Ieyasu did not respect the Mori for their non-participation because the Mori were technically the head of the Western forces as selected by Mitsunari (even though Mitsunari was really in charge). Ieyasu thought it dishonorable that the technical head of the western forces would end up not participating.
ReplyDeleteIs that what happened as far as you know?