Talk:General Discussion/@comment-121.54.58.197-20140630220937/@comment-139.0.112.172-20140702183741

^ Actually, there seems to be a common misunderstanding about the career of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Yes he was born a commoner and yes he initially served unmounted in the Oda army, but the depiction of him having served as a foot soldier is a bit confused. Hideyoshi never actually served as a foot soldier, certainly not as ashigaru. He started his career as Oda Nobunaga's sandal bearer, was noticed for his intelligence by Nobunaga when they discussed an ongoing battle, and was promoted directly to small-unit commander.

Basically, Hideyoshi went straight from manservant to the equivalent of noncom officer without ever going through the phase of serving as a foot soldier. There was another man serving directly under Hideyoshi who WAS a foot soldier (despite coming from a samurai family) but rose up the ranks to become daimyo, and that's Sengoku Gonbei (or Hidehisa). From Hidehisa's memoirs we know a bit about Kinoshita Tokichiro (Hideyoshi) when he was still commander of foot, and one thing that was mentioned repeatedly is that Hideyoshi was a lousy soldier - in fact Chosokabe Motochika once quipped that he wouldn't have lasted long fighting as one. Hideyoshi's forte was more as a commanding officer and tactician.

The ashigaru in the Sengoku era were a sad lot, often sacrificed at the drop of a hat. This was exactly why Nobunaga promoted Hideyoshi straight to small-unit commander. He wanted to preserve this talent instead of wasting him away as cannon fodder.