Nothing about his birth or childhood presaged greatness. Who was Toyotomi Hideyoshi? We know what he did, know his environment and the shattering and shaping impact he had on it; but the man himself escapes us.

He was born in 1536 in Owari Province, part of today's Aichi Prefecture. His father was an armed peasant, a sometime foot soldier. It's what Hideyoshi himself would have been, in normal times.

These were not normal times. An emperor reigned, a shogun ruled — impotently. Territorial warlords battled each other for supremacy. It was chaos, carnage. Warlord of Owari was Oda Nobunaga (1534-82). Hideyoshi, at age 22, took service under him. They flourished together — greatness serving greatness, greatness rewarding greatness.