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The Island of the Nine Provinces was then under the rule of three great clans; the Shimazu, in the south; the Otomo, in Bungo, and the Ryuzoji, in Hizen.
These spies were led by the abbot, Kennyo, with whose name the reader is already familiar, and as the Shimazu family were sincere believers in Buddhism, no obstacles were placed in the way of the treacherous monks.
In 1416, however, an ambassador from the islands presented himself at the Muromachi shogunate, and twenty-five years later , the shogun Yoshinori, just before his death, bestowed Ryukyu on Shimazu Tadakuni, lord of Satsuma, in recognition of meritorious services.
Ryoshun had been selected for service in Kyushu by the great shitsuji of Muromachi, Hosokawa Yoriyuki, who saw that only by the strongest hands could the turbulent families of the southern island be reduced to order the Shimazu, the Otomo, the Shoni, and the Kikuchi. Everything went to show that Imagawa would have succeeded had not that familiar weapon, slander, been utilized for his overthrow.
Orders were immediately issued to Mori, Kikkawa, Kohayakawa, and Chosokabe Motochika to assemble their forces for an oversea expedition, and in the mean while, Sengoku Hidehisa was despatched to Kyushu bearing a letter in which Hideyoshi, writing over his title of kwampaku, censured the Shimazu baron for having failed to pay his respects to the Imperial Court in Kyoto, and called upon him to do so without delay.
Thus, in the case of the Mori sept, fully half of the midland counties was left in their occupation, and, in the case of the Shimazu family, they were suffered to retain two and a half provinces. With regard to Ieyasu, however, Hideyoshi behaved with marked caution.
In Echizen, Owari, and Totomi the great Shiba family was subjected to weakening onsets by the Asakura, the Oda, and the Imagawa. In Kaga, the Togashi house was divided against itself. In Kyushu there were bitter struggles between the Shimazu and the Ito, the Sagara and the Nawa, and the Otomo, the Shoni, and the Ouchi. Finally, Shinano, Suruga, and Mikawa were all more or less convulsed.
There now remained only three really formidable enemies of Hideyoshi. These were Hojo Ujimasa, in the Kwanto; Date Masamime, in Dewa and Mutsu, and Shimazu Yoshihisa, in Kyushu. Of these, the Shimazu sept was probably the most powerful, and Hideyoshi determined that Kyushu should be the scene of his next warlike enterprise.
Only the Shimazu family of Satsuma remained without loss. Secured by inaccessibility, it continued to hold the provinces of Satsuma, Osumi, and Hyuga, with a revenue of 700,000 koku. These measures represented only a fraction of the readjustments then effected.
Takanobu sent an army against Yoshizumi, but the Satsuma baron despatched Shimazu Masahisa to Yoshizumi's aid, and a sanguinary engagement at Shimabara in 1585 resulted in the rout of Takanobu's forces and his own death.
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