The Words of the Samurai – Episode 16

Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s Last Words: The End of a Warlord’s Era

Among Japan’s most powerful warlords, Toyotomi Hideyoshi may have been the most human of them all.
After uniting the nation through force and diplomacy, he died in 1598 leaving a message that was more of a plea than a command: “I entrust Hideyori to you.”
Those words, spoken three times, show the father behind the conqueror — and signaled the beginning of the Toyotomi clan’s fall and the rise of the Tokugawa era.

A dying ruler’s plea that changed Japan’s destiny

In August 1598, during the third year of the Keichō era, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, bedridden and aware that death was near, called the great daimyō Tokugawa Ieyasu, Maeda Toshiie, Mōri Terumoto, and others to his bedside and gave them his final words:

“I entrust Hideyori to you. I entrust Hideyori to you. I entrust Hideyori to you.”

Hideyori, born when Hideyoshi was already past fifty, was only five years old at the time. Hideyoshi loved his son deeply and worried for him until his last moments.
But contrary to his hopes, these dying words led to the weakening of the Toyotomi clan’s influence.

For a man who had unified the nation, his testament was seen as too emotional and lacking in strength.
People said, “We understand a father’s love, but these sound like the confused words of a dying man,” and many lost faith in him.
Perhaps Hideyoshi himself felt the same deep down.

After all, he had once said:

“One should never make a will when gravely ill. The mind grows clouded, and you end up saying things you shouldn’t. It’s something to be very careful about.”

Hideyoshi’s final message wasn’t about power; it was about love, loss, and trust.
The man who built a nation came to understand the limits of human strength.
What many saw as weakness now feels profoundly human — even a great warrior and ruler must one day let go.