"Akechi reigned three days,"
but after him were to arise a ruler and central government jealous and
hostile. After this flood was to come slowly but surely the ebb-tide,
until it should leave, outwardly at least, all things as before.
The Jesuit fathers, with instant sensitiveness, felt the loss of their
champion and protector, Nobunaga. The rebel and assassin, Akechi,
ambitious to imitate and excel his master, promised the Christians to do
more for them even than Nobunaga had done, provided they would induce
the daimi[=o] Takayama to join forces with his. It is the record of
their own friendly historian, and not of an enemy, that they, led by the
Jesuit father Organtin, attempted this persuasion. To the honor of the
Christian Japanese Takayama, he refused.[9] On the contrary, he marched
his little army of a thousand men to Ki[=o]to, and, though opposed to a
force of eight thousand, held the capital city until Hideyoshi, the
loyal general of the Mikado, reached the court city and dispersed the
assassin's band. Hideyoshi soon made himself familiar with the whole
story, and his keen eye took in the situation.
This "man on horseback," master of the situation and moulder of the
destinies of Japan, Hideyoshi (1536-1598), was afterward known as the
Taik[=o], or Retired Regent.
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