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| 1584 |
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This resulted in Hideyoshi's hegemony over central Japan. In the preceding year he had already commenced the construction of the great  saka Castle as his home base. | 1 |
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| 1585 |
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Hideyoshi was appointed regent (kanpaku) and two years later became prime minister (daj daijin) as well. | 2 |
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| 1585–86 |
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| A greater stratification of classes was brought about by legislation: (1) warriors (samurai), (2) farmers, (3) artisans, and (4) merchants. | 3 |
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| 1587 |
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The subjugation of the Shimazu family of southern Ky sh completed Hideyoshi's conquest of western Japan. | 4 |
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| 1587 |
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| Hideyoshi issued a decree banishing the Portuguese missionaries from Japan but failed to enforce it for ten years. His motive for this sudden opposition to Christianity was probably apprehension at the growing political and military strength of the Christians. | 5 |
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| 1588 |
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| The peasantry was disarmed in Hideyoshi's sword hunt, it thereafter becoming illegal for anyone other than warriors to carry weapons. | 6 |
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| 1590 |
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| The capture of the stronghold of the Hj family at Odaware induced all eastern and northern Japan to accept Hideyoshi's rule and completed the unification of the land. At this time Hideyoshi's prominent vassal, Tokugawa Ieyasu, moved his administrative and military base to Edo (present-day Tokyo), a strategic spot for the domination of the great Kant plain of eastern Japan. | 7 |
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| 1592 |
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| The first invasion of Korea by the armies of Hideyoshi was possibly motivated by fear of the excess of experienced warriors in Japan, although the overly ambitious Hideyoshi was indeed planning the conquest of China. When Korea refused to grant the Japanese transit up the peninsula and into China, they invaded (See 1592). Under the leadership of Kat Kiyomasa (1562–1611) and Konishi Yukinaga (1556?–1600), the expeditionary force of some 200,000 overran almost the whole of Korea but was forced by a large Chinese army and a capable Korean navy to withdraw to the southern coast. | 8 |
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| 1597 |
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| The second Korean campaign was launched but with even less success. After Hideyoshi's death (1598), all the surviving Japanese soldiers returned to Japan. The lasting political results of the Korean venture were negligible, but a rapid development and expansion of the ceramic industry in Japan was brought about by the many Korean potters who were kidnapped back to Japan by the retreating captains. | 9 |
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| 1597 |
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| Hideyoshi, irritated by the bickering between the Portuguese Jesuits and the Spanish Franciscans (who came to Japan in 1593) and suspecting that Christian proselytizing was merely an opening wedge for the subsequent conquest of Japan by Europeans, executed 3 Jesuits, 6 Franciscans, and 17 Japanese Christians. The remaining missionaries were ordered to leave, but only a small number did so. Hideyoshi did not press the persecution further, because he did not wish to drive away the Portuguese traders, who were then especially welcome, since direct commercial intercourse with China had been stopped. | 10 |
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| 1598 |
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| Hideyoshi's death was soon followed by a struggle for power among his former vassals. | 11 |
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| 1600 |
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| The power struggle culminated in the Battle of Sekigahara, where Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated a coalition of his rivals. This victory made Ieyasu in effect the ruler of the whole land, although he was not appointed shogun until 1603. | 12 |
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