<Note>A Consideration of the Military Regulations (Gunritsu Okitegaki) of Hashiba Hideyoshi Issued on the 25th Day of the Sixth Month of Tensho 9 (1581)

This article uses the Hashiba (Toyotomi) Hideyoshi's military regulations (gunritsu okitegaki) issued on the 25th day of the sixth month of Tensho 9 (1581) in an attempt to consider Hideyoshi's policy toward peasant farmers. The following results can be indicated. First, the Oda forces were hard pressed to deal with the Mori counterattack and the uprising of the Ikki forces in Inaba and eastern Hoki from autumn of Tensho 8, and Hideyoshi was placed in a position in which he was forced to alter the situation Moreover, he had to reverse the situation by the tenth month of Tensho 9. Second, food supplies in Inaba were low, and there was the danger of the emergence of peasants opposed to the Oda forces in the region. There was also a strong possibility that food supplies would also worsen in eastern Hoki. Hideyoshi's initial injection of large numbers of men and horses into the region in order to reverse the situation might exacerbate the food supply problem. For this reason, how military provisions and food supplies for his forces could be secured seemed a vital, unavoidable problem to be solved by Hideyoshi before he could introduce troops into the San'in region. Third, if overwhelming force were used to secure military provisions in order to feed many men and horses, this could worsen the food supply problem, oppressing the peasant farmers, and in turn possibly increasing the number of peasants opposed to Oda. The creation and promulgation of Hideyoshi's regulation as regards obtaining of rice-bran, firewood was an attempt to deal correctly with the peasant farmers, and it can be surmised that the regulations to the warriors under his command was a policy designed to avoid this situation. In addition, on the basis of the above three points, this article, fourthly, emphasizes the necessity of portraying the Toyotomi forces in light of their manner of acquiring military provisions in the local area, and, fifthly, brings to light the problem of the proper way of locating Hideyoshi's regulations among other regulations for obtaining military provisions during the Warring States period and that of the ascendancy of the Oda regime