Quote:
Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle
None of these people except Yamato Takeru can even be considered "imperial."
And Yamato Takeru is over 600 years before Hideyoshi in a time when Japan was semi-theocratic so he has nothing to do with this period.
|
The fact is that Japan was an Empire since it was founded in 660 BCE by its 1st Emperor Jimmu.
Though there were periods of rule by Shoguns, who are military dictators rather than emperors, Japan is still an Empire throughout its history because it conquered neighboring kingdoms and tribes to expand its territory.
The 1st conquests occurred when Jimmu defeated several small kingdoms and tribes and occupied the whole island of Honshu and this became the mainland of the Empire.
Then in 658-660, General Abe no Hirafu occupied the island of Hokkaido, defeating the Mishihase tribes living there and annexing the island.
https://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=155521
From 1585-1609, Toyotomi Hideyoshi then launched an expedition to occupy the southern islands of Shikoku, Kyushu, and the Ryukyu Kingdom.
The conquests of the southern islands occurred at the same time as the invasion of Korea in 1592 by the Japanese Empire.
https://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=154680
In 1697, Japan became even more powerful when the rice merchants created the Dojima Rice Exchange, which is the world's 1st market for buying and selling goods using futures contracts. The high productivity of the farms owned by these rice merchants, who even possessed hullers to mass produce rice on an industrial scale, and the increased profits resulting from the Dojima Rice Exchange, allowed the Merchants to grow so powerful that they monopolized the rice industry.
https://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=155993