Historian Lee Myung-woo once made an assessment that in the history of Japanese unification, Oda Nobunaga was equivalent to a person who planted wheat, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was equivalent to a person who collected wheat to make cakes, and Tokugawa Ieyasu was equivalent to a person who ate cakes.
(Toyotomi Hideyoshi)
Toyotomi Hideyoshi started as a poor boy and eventually stood on the highest stage of Japanese politics, just as China's Qin Shi Huang ended the warring states and unified China. Hideyoshi Toyoda also basically ended Japan's Sengoku period and achieved unification. However, history is strikingly similar, the Great Qin Empire II founded by Qin Shi Huang died, and toyotomi Hideyoshi's empire was replaced by Tokugawa Ieyasu when it reached the second Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
The state of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi is somewhat similar to that of Sima Yi and Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms period. Many people have asked the question that Cao Cao knew that Sima Yi had the "appearance of a wolf" and would never "live under the people for a long time", but why did he not kill Sima Yi, so that Sima Yi and his descendants seized Cao Cao's empire? Similarly, Hontoshi Hideyoshi knew that Tokugawa Ieyasu was a great threat to his son, so why didn't he get rid of Tokugawa Ieyasu in advance?
Toyotomi Hideyoshi is said to be wary of Tokugawa Ieyasu because he did not give Tokugawa Ieyasu a high degree of power during his lifetime. Moreover, in order to prevent Tokugawa Ieyasu from dominating and controlling power, he also handed over power to many people, as the Xianfeng Emperor did.
The Xianfeng Emperor elected eight ministers for the young Tongzhi. Even so, he was still afraid that the ministers would abuse their power, so he handed over the seal of the imperial court to ci'an and cixi palaces, and all the government decrees of the ministers had to be handed over to ci'an and cixi palaces to be stamped before they could be issued.
The same was true of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who chose the "Five Elders" such as Tokugawa Ieyasu of the Elder Faction for his youngest son, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was only 5 years old, and the "Five Elders" such as Ishida Sansei of the Shōjo faction, so that a total of 10 forces were used to manage state affairs. In addition, Toyotomi Hideyoshi chose three more forces of the "Three Elders" to contain the above 10 forces.
(Tokugawa Ieyasu)
It can be said that such an approach seems to disperse power even more than the "Tui En Order" carried out by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty during the Han Dynasty. In Toyotomi Hideyoshi's view, even if Tokugawa Ieyasu's family power is on the rise, so many people disperse power, Tokugawa Ieyasu can only get one-thirteenth of the power, and it is impossible to turn over any prodigal son.
However, the reality is completely different from what Toyotomi Hideyoshi thought. After Toyotomi Hideyoshi's death, the ministers he had chosen fought not to restrain each other, but to fight for power. After all, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was very small and couldn't take care of things, and of course they had to fight for power. First of all, Ishida Sansei, one of the "Five Bongxing", was dissatisfied with Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of the "Five Elders", and the two sides fought the Sekigahara War. As a result, the "Five Bongxing" represented by Ishida Sansei was defeated by the "Five Elders" represented by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Ishida Sansei was executed and the "Five Bongxing" disintegrated.
Among the "Five Elders" and "Five Bongxing", the "Five Bongxing" are actually close associates of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Toyotomi Hideyoshi used them to restrain the "Five Elders" forces. Now that the "Five Pursuits" have disintegrated, it means that the power of the Toyotomi family has weakened, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi is a small child, and he cannot control some ministers such as the "Five Elders". After this incident, Tokugawa Ieyasu was made an official of the Shogun by the imperial court, which effectively meant that Tokugawa Ieyasu had taken power. Later, the "Katahiroji Jongmyo Incident" broke out, and the Tokugawa Ieyasu family went to war with the Toyotomi Hiderai family, which is known as the "Battle of Osaka Winter and Summer". After this war, Toyotomi Hiderai and his mother committed suicide by cutting their stomachs in Osaka Castle. The power of the whole of Japan thus fell completely into the hands of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Japan ushered in the Edo period of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Such an ending, I believe that if Toyotomi Hideyoshi had known about it, he would not have wanted to see it.
(Toyotomi Hideyoshi stills)
So why didn't the political system that was supposed to be good be played down according to the plot designed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi?
The most fundamental reason is that Toyotomi Hideyoshi chose his 5-year-old son as his heir.
In fact, before choosing Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had chosen someone else as his successor. Since Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his wife Ning Ning did not have children, and did not have children in the other side chambers, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had chosen Ning Ning's nephew Hideaki Kohayakawa as his heir early on. Soon, however, he and SideMuro had a child, and Hideaki Kohayakawa was disqualified from inheriting him. Unexpectedly, this child was not fed and died. Therefore, Toyotomi Hideyoshi chose his sister's son Toyotomi Hideji as his heir. Soon, however, his side chamber gave birth to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Therefore, he once again seized the throne of Toyotomi Hideji and forced Toyotomi Hideji to commit suicide by cutting his abdomen.
After all these tosses, Toyotomi Hideyoshi not only seriously weakened the power of his Toyotomi family, but also caused his wives and concubines to have great conflicts with each other. Coupled with the young age of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's mother, Asai Chacha, was no more than a female stream, and there was a contradiction with Toyotomi Hideyoshi's wife Ning Ning and others. In this way, among toyotomi Hideyoshi's descendants, their power was greatly reduced and there was no main backbone. In the end, Tokugawa Ieyasu easily seized power from Toyotomi Hideyoshi's descendants, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi made a wedding dress for someone else.
(Reference: Dictionary of Japanese Historical Figures)