An Introduction to the Private Correspondence of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

T Nhe private correspondence of Toyotomi Hideyoshi,1 although possessing considerable interest for a better understanding of both his way of thinking and his political actions, has yet to be translated into a Western language.2 This short note aims at merely presenting the corpus of the letters available today, providing some details of their main features and relating their subjects and recipients. Only a few sentences are quoted here in order to throw light on the ruler's personal feelings, for I will be shortly publishing a full translation of all the letters. Hideyoshi employed scribes for his official correspondence,3 but he himself wrote in kana many letters addressed to his mother, wife, concubines, sons and other people. He wrote these letters in kana not because of his low birth (although his lack of formal education is certainly reflected by his frequent use of ateji4), but because the syllabic script was considered most appropriate in letters addressed to women and children. Thus the graphic and structural elements of his letters are the kana (either hiragana or katakana5), hentaigana,6 nyjbj kotoba,7 moji kotoba8

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