Azuchi-Momoyama period

The Azuchi-Momoyama period is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1568 to 1600. The period marks the governance of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the capital of Kyoto. The name Azuchi-Momoyama comes from the names of their respective castles, Azuchi castle and Momoyama castle.

The Azuchi-Momoyama period began out of the late Muromachi period, known also as the Sengoku period, in 1568 when the armies of Nobunaga entered Kyoto and reestablished the Ashikaga Shogunate under the 15th and last shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki. The puppet shogunate lasted for 5 years until Yoshiaki was driven out of the capital in Kyoto by Nobunaga in 1573.

In 1582, Nobunaga was assassinated in a coup by retainer Akechi Mitsuhide at Honnou Temple in Kyoto. Nobunaga's retainer Hashiba Hideyoshi, the later Toyotomi Hideyoshi, vanquished Mitsuhide at the Battle of Yamazaki and consolidated his own power in Kyoto to eventually conquer all of Japan by 1590.

When Toyotomi Hideyoshi died in 1598, his retainer Tokugawa Ieyasu sought to subjugate the Toyotomi. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Ieyasu held supreme power over Japan beginning the Edo period, and finally in 1603 received the title of shogun officially establishing the Tokugawa Shogunate in Edo.