He was born without a surname. His father was a farmer who had briefly served as an 足軽 (Ashigaru) — a foot soldier, the lowest military rank — and died when the boy was small. No clan, no land, no name. And yet by 1588, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had conquered every domain in Japan, held the title of 関白 (Kampaku) — imperial regent, the highest civilian office in the land — and ruled from Osaka Castle with an authority no man had wielded in a century.

Then he issued the 刀狩令 (Katanagari-rei): the Sword Hunt Edict.

Every sword, short sword, bow, spear, and firearm held by farmers, monks, and anyone outside the samurai class was to be surrendered immediately to their domain lord. Samurai retainers were explicitly exempt. The language surrounding the confiscation was careful, even generous: the weapons would not be wasted. They would be melted down and used as nails and clamps in the construction of a colossal statue of the Buddha at 方広寺 (Hōkōji) temple in Kyoto — one of the largest wooden religious monuments ever planned in Japan. Surrender your blades, the edict announced, and you will be blessed in this life and in the next.

The cynicism was breathtaking. Hideyoshi, who had carried a sword his whole life — who was alive because a sword had been available to a peasant boy with nothing — was now declaring that peasant boys with nothing could no longer carry swords. He was approximately 51 years old. He had climbed every rung the feudal order allowed on the strength of personal ability and a blade, and then he pulled up the ladder behind him.

The edict was not merely about weapons. Within two years Hideyoshi followed it with the 身分統制令 (Mibun Tōsei-rei), the Separation Edict of 1591: farmers could not become merchants, samurai could not return to farming. The four-tier social hierarchy — shi (士, warrior), nō (農, farmer), kō (工, artisan), shō (商, merchant) — was frozen into law. The Sengoku era, in which talent and violence could scramble a man from the dirt to the summit, was officially over. The samurai class became an inheritance rather than an achievement.

The Great Buddha of 方広寺 (Hōkōji), built partly from the confiscated weapons of the people Hideyoshi had disarmed, was destroyed by earthquake in 1596. Hideyoshi died two years later, in 1598, at around age 61, his heir a child, his succession a question that would be answered at 関ヶ原 (Sekigahara) in 1600. The monument to his power had burned. The law he wrote survived him by three centuries.