Hideyoshi took over Nobunaga's house by backing a two-year-old heir, and after he died Tokugawa Ieyasu did the same to his own five-year-old son

Oda Nobunaga and his heir Nobutada died in the Honnōji incident in 1582. At a meeting of Oda generals at Kiyosu that summer, Nobunaga's sons Nobukatsu and Nobutaka each claimed the house. Hashiba Hideyoshi, who had just destroyed the killer Akechi Mitsuhide, backed Nobutada's infant son Sanbōshi instead, and won. Hideyoshi then took control of Japan. The boy later sided against the Tokugawa at Sekigahara, surrendered and died in 1605 at 25. Hideyoshi had his own son, Hideyori, at 57 in 1593. Two years later he ordered his adopted heir, his nephew Hidetsugu, to kill himself; more than 30 of Hidetsugu's wives, concubines and children were executed in Kyoto. Dying in 1598, Hideyoshi wrote on the 5th day of the 8th month to the Five Elders, led by Tokugawa Ieyasu and Maeda Toshiie, begging them to protect his five-year-old son. The lords had sworn loyalty in blood. After Sekigahara in 1600 Hideyori was reduced to a lord of 600,000 to 700,000 koku in three provinces. In 1614 Ieyasu claimed the inscription on a bell Hideyori had cast at Hōkōji cursed him. Osaka Castle fell in the 5th month of 1615 and Hideyori and his mother Yodo killed themselves. The Toyotomi house ended.