An Ancient Warlord Fit for Modern Japan

He is regarded by many as the perfect leader for Japan’s confusing times of economic retrenchment, political chaos and social malaise: a man of bold action and inspired leadership capable of unifying this dispirited nation.

Trouble is, he’s been dead for nearly 400 years.

But Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the most celebrated warlords in Japan’s long history of fabled samurai, is very much alive in the public mind, as a hit TV series, a theme park, an art exhibition, books, essays and tours revive his legacy. Affectionately known as saru--monkey--the small man with gigantic ambitions rose from humble peasant roots to become the ruler who united Japan in the late 16th century after about 100 years of brutal civil wars.

In recent months, millions of Japanese have tuned in to a popular TV series on Hideyoshi--who lived from 1536 to 1598--turning the scrawny actor who plays him into a national sex symbol. The public has ogled exhibits displaying such priceless artifacts as Hideyoshi’s peacock-shaped helmet, gold ornaments, gleaming swords, hand-embroidered kimono and love letters to his mistress.

The people have also flocked to a Hideyoshi-era theme park near the city of Nagoya, reliving famous battles through Disney-type amusements, ninja shows and theater featuring acrobatic actors in samurai wigs. Norimasu Sato, 10, was there recently, watching video snippets of the hero he became interested in after his mother brought home comic books about Hideyoshi.

“He was smart, strong and small,” the youngster said. “I think it would be interesting to be a samurai.”

The Hideyoshi revival has been fueled by such popular social commentators as Taichi Sakaiya, a former trade bureaucrat whose recent book about the warlord is a basis for the current TV series. Sakaiya argues that the ancient warlord’s policies are relevant to the myriad problems plaguing today’s Japan.

Stymied by the sluggish economy? Simple, Sakaiya says: Study how the warlord shifted the country from a heavily centralized wartime footing to a flourishing economy by busting up business cartels, introducing street markets, allowing artists and musicians to commercialize their work, importing foreign technology and encouraging such innovative ventures as rice-wine refining.

The warlord also carried out massive decentralization, empowering local feudal lords with significant autonomy and large rice allocations to win their loyalty.

“The lesson from the Hideyoshi story to present-day Japan,” Sakaiya says, “is that, rather than such establishment forces as big industry and big bureaucracy, there is a bigger chance for growth in venture industries.”

Frustrated with Japan’s political leadership? So is Heiichi Imokawa, a Tokyo education professor who recently visited an exhibit of Hideyoshi artifacts and came away longing for a leader like the warlord--able to unify Japan’s splintered political world and articulate a common national vision.

“We need someone like Hideyoshi to unify Japan today, but there isn’t anyone,” Imokawa lamented. “Both the Liberal Democratic Party and Socialists are too firmly entrenched in old, inflexible patterns of thinking.”

*

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto watches the NHK-TV drama “Hideyoshi” and finds political inspiration, according to his secretary. Against enormous odds, Hideyoshi launched campaigns that brought under his command more than 100 lords--many of them from illustrious houses that could have easily conspired against him.

He succeeded by forging shrewd alliances and overcoming enemies through such brilliant tactics as building mock castles overnight to deepen the enemy’s impression of his strength on the battlefield, according to one Hideyoshi biographer, Mary Elizabeth Berry, a historian at UC Berkeley.

Four centuries later, his lightning assault against the assassin of his beloved lord Oda Nobunaga remains legendary as a stellar example of the quick thinking and decisive action of which a bureaucratized Japan, critics say, seems no longer capable. Hideyoshi is even looked upon as an answer to the social malaise in Japan today.

Scholars laud Hideyoshi for rebuilding and reinspiring the war-torn nation by repairing the ravaged capital, monasteries and shrines; fostering a cultural renaissance through tea parties, theater and blossom-viewing events for people by the thousands; and encouraging overseas exchanges.

*

Hideyoshi’s greatest gift is the personal example of hope he inspires at a time when many lament that Japan has lost direction, said the show’s producer, Yoshiki Nishimura, whose current production has been among NHK’s highest rated for a period drama. The poor farm boy had little more than a passionate dream and burning desire to serve the great lord Nobunaga--yet, starting as a lowly stable boy, he quickly became his most-trusted lieutenant, commanding others from rich and privileged backgrounds.

“Everyone is depressed these days; they’ve forgotten how to dream,” Nishimura said. “We wanted to remind people that they can make their dreams come true.”

Like Godzilla--another Japanese icon who has been used to reflect everything from nuclear phobia of the 1950s to approval of international peacekeeping operations in the 1990s--Hideyoshi is regularly revived and recast; the current drama is NHK’s third in the past 30 years to feature him.

Three decades ago, when Japan was entering the era of rapid industrial growth, NHK producers emphasized the aggressive, expansionary facets of Hideyoshi’s character, Nishimura said. About 15 years later, the second drama highlighted the antiwar sentiments of Hideyoshi’s wife, One, to underscore public opposition to the Vietnam War.

Today, he said, NHK producers aimed for an upbeat, inspiring story played with gusto by Naoto Takenaka, a popular actor known for his rambunctious spirit and wildly expressive gestures.

“We can learn a lot from the Hideyoshi spirit: Just do it!” said Koji Yoshikawa, the program’s chief director.

*

But, reflecting the times, Hideyoshi’s legacy has been downgraded as more Japanese become sensitive to the warlord’s cruel deeds against Koreans. In bloody campaigns, Hideyoshi attempted to invade Korea twice, kidnapped Korean potters to bring their fabled ceramic craft to Japan and, in an action that still makes news today, ordered his invading forces to cut off the noses of Koreans felled in battle as proof of conquest.

After much controversy, those remains were recently returned to South Korea, but the subject is still controversial; many Koreans in Japan and elsewhere are closely watching how NHK will address the invasions in coming weeks.

And many Japanese, while admiring the warlord’s prowess, say he would be woefully out of step in today’s Japan.

“Hideyoshi gave up himself for the sake of following Nobunaga in absolute loyalty,” equipment salesman Tomio Fukuda, 49, said as he lingered over the warlord’s artifacts at the recent Tokyo exhibit. “But those of us born after the war can’t go that far anymore--we want to value ourselves and our families.”

Chiaki Kitada of The Times’ Tokyo Bureau contributed to this report.