Nationwide Sword Hunt Issued

Date: August 29, 1588 • Location: Tokyo, Japan

Toyotomi Hideyoshi issues a nationwide sword hunting ordinance, disarming the peasantry so as to firmly separate the samurai and commoner classes, prevent peasant uprisings, and further centralise his own power.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as Kinoshita Tōkichirō and Hashiba Hideyoshi , was a Japanese samurai and daimyō of the late Sengoku and Azuchi–Momoyama periods, regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan. He rose to the rank and title of kampaku and daijō-daijin , the highest offices at the imperial court. He was the first commoner to become kampaku. He then passed the position and title of kampaku to his nephew, Toyotomi Hidetsugu. He remained in power as Taikō (太閤), the title of a retired kampaku, until his death.