Azuchi-Momoyama Period

The Azuchi-Momoyama Period (Azuchi-Momoyama Jidai, aka Shokuho Period, 1568/73 - 1600 CE) was a brief but significant period of medieval Japan's history which saw the country unified after centuries of a weak central government and petty conflicts between hundreds of rival warlords. Oda Nobunaga (r. 1568-1582 CE) would establish himself as the military ruler of Japan, and his castle at Azuchi, east of Kyoto, gives the period the first half of its name. Nobunaga's successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi (r. 1582-1598 CE) would continue his work to unify all of Japan, and his base of Momoyama, south of Kyoto, provides the second half of the period's name. Hideyoshi came unstuck with his two failed invasions of Korea, and the period ended with the succession conflict that would see Tokugawa Ieyasu establish the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868 CE).