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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.
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