TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI The second of the Great Unifiers of Japan, Hideyoshi was the son of a peasant woodcutter, who had run away from the temple where he was being trained as a monk to enlist in an army as an ashigaru (peasant troops). He subsequently absconded from his first master and joined Oda Nobunaga, who had an eye for talent. Hideyoshi’s subsequent progress up the ranks developed at a rate unequaled by any other samurai in the history of Japan. In April 1583, ten months after Nobunaga’s death, Hideyoshi controlled thirty provinces, a domain which had taken Nobunaga twenty years to subdue.