Speaking of legendary figures in Japanese history, Toyotomi Hideyoshi is definitely one of them, even more legendary than Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu, because he was born a dalit and could not find any public or samurai lineage nine generations ago. Japan's ancient class hierarchy was very strict, if it was a dalit, it could only be a dalit for generations; even if you want to "go down", you must at least have a bloodline as an endorsement.
For example, Saito Michizo, although he worked as a monk in his early years and became an oil merchant after his death, his father was a samurai in charge of the imperial palace guards, and although he was humble, he at least had the status of a samurai. However, there was nothing in the Toyotomi Hideyoshi family, and if it had to be traced, it was only that his biological father was once an iron cannon under Oda Nobuhide; later returned home to farm due to injury, and died of his injuries, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi's mother took him and his sister to remarry.
Moreover, the early Toyotomi Hideyoshi, because of his humble origins, did not even deserve to have a surname, and did not call himself "Kinoshita" until he married Ningning; although Ningning was not a nobleman, he was also a samurai family with family style, her father was the Oda samurai Sugihara Tsuruta, her mother was the second daughter of the Sugihara Ieyatoshi family, and her uncle was Asano Nagakatsu, and Asano Nagakatsu was a pawn leader under Oda Nobunaga at that time; and Toyotomi Hideyoshi happened to be a foot light under Asano Nagakatsu after joining the army.
Asano Nagatsumi admired Toyotomi Hideyoshi, so he decided to let Ning Ning marry Toyotomi Hideyoshi, after which Toyotomi Hideyoshi began to rise gradually, first becoming a low-ranking samurai and having the status of a samurai; then because of his bravery and resourcefulness, he was admired by Oda Nobunaga, and eventually became a daimyō with 220,000 stones in Kita Omi, and also became one of the six military leaders under Oda Nobunaga, and was strong; but it is said that Oda Nobunaga never looked up to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and also jokingly called Toyotomi Hideyoshi "monkey" and "bald mouse".
However, it has to be said that Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a tyrant of the generation, able to quickly rise from Oda Nobunaga's hands, and won the support of most of the daimyo after Oda Nobunaga's death, and unified Japan after defeating opponents. And his goal is not only to unify Japan, he also wants to expand abroad, but Toyotomi Hideyoshi always has two heart diseases in his heart, the first is the problem of offspring, and he and his half-brother Toyotomi Hidenaga seem to have a little problem with fertility.
Toyotomi Hidenaga never had any offspring, and although he had many women, he had only three biological sons, the first two of whom died prematurely, and only the third son, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, grew up smoothly. The second problem was the issue of identity, which was not a big problem in the early days, after all, Oda Nobunaga had already given him the status of a samurai in the Eight Classics, but when he wanted to further become a shogun or Guan Bai, the problem of insufficient birth was highlighted.
First of all, the Shogi Shogun, who is the head of the samurai family, is eligible to establish a shogunate; but in practice, in order to become a Shogun, in addition to having the power to dominate Japan, there must also be a royal bloodline, such as from the Kiyokazu Genji or Isehei clan; if Oda Nobunaga did not die in the honnō-ji change, Oda Nobunaga could basically become a Shogun, because according to the genealogy of the Oda clan, the Oda clan is from the Huanwuhei clan; but according to the Oda clan itself, the Oda clan is from the Fujiwara clan. But no matter what, they are all qualified to become the great generals of the conquest.
In short, although Toyotomi Hideyoshi wanted to become a great general of the Seiyi, the secretaries of state at that time used this reason, which was enough to make Toyotomi Hideyoshi give up; but the secretaries also knew that they could not offend Toyotomi Hideyoshi too badly, after all, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was in power, so they proposed another solution, that is, to serve as Guan Bai. Although Guan Bai was not as prominent as the Great General Zhengyi, he was also the head of the public family, similar to the ancient Chinese chancellor, who held the power of the dynasty and was the highest official position before the rise of the warriors.
Although there are also status restrictions on wanting to become Guan Bai, the good villains are not as strict as the General of the Seiyi Clan; according to the customization, only the people of the Goto family can serve as Guan Bai, and these five regents refer to the five families divided into the Fujiwara clan, which are the Ichijō clan, the Nijo clan, the Kujo clan, the Konoe clan, and the Eagle Clan; all along, Guan Bai has been served by these five families in turn, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi wants to become a Kanpaku family, so he has to change his surname to one of the Goji clan.
However, the Goju family has been passed down for thousands of years, and the family glory has long been integrated into the bones, and it is impossible to make them submit by power, and even if Toyotomi Hideyoshi is in power, he does not dare to easily offend them. After learning about it, Toyotomi Hideyoshi targeted Konoe Maehisa, who had a very close relationship with the samurai family, and had a blood alliance with Uesugi Kenshin, and later had a close friendship with Oda Nobunaga; and this Konoe Maehisa was still the previous Sekibai, which was the most suitable choice.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi once planned to recognize Konoe Maehisa as his righteous father and get the surname of "Konoe", to know that Konoe Maehisa was only one year older than Toyotomi Hideyoshi, perhaps the imperial court felt that this was a bit too childish, Konoe Maehisa was not embarrassed to call Toyotomi Hideyoshi "son", so he compromised, allowed him to become Konoe Maeisa's son (originally meaning to refer to his brother's son, said like a son) and took up the position of Guan Bai, and at his request gave a new surname "Toyotomi".
In fact, even if Toyotomi Hideyoshi obtained the position of Guan Bai through powerful means, and obtained a new surname "Guan Bai", and made the Toyotomi clan juxtaposed with the traditional four noble surnames, all this was not really recognized by the samurai and the public, but only succumbed to his authority. And it is true, why was tokugawa Ieyasu able to quickly gain the approval of most daimyōs after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi? In addition to their own reasons, most of the factors are actually because these daimyo do not recognize the Toyotomi clan.
And Tokugawa Ieyasu's original surname is Matsudaira clan, according to the pedigree chart, the Matsudaira clan is derived from kiyowa Genji, although this bloodline is very thin, but it is still recognized by the imperial court, so Tokugawa Ieyasu can easily become toyotomi Hideyoshi's unattainable position of the shogun of the Shoi clan; and at that time, the name given to Tokugawa Ieyasu by Emperor Masamune was "Tokugawa Sakyo Daifu Geneyasu", and the "Gen" character in the middle recognized his identity as a descendant of Genji...