Battle of Sekigahara
Part of the Sengoku period
Edo-period screen depicting the battle
Date October 21, 1600 Location Sekigahara, Mino Province, present-day Gifu Prefecture, Japan 35°22′14″N 136°27′42″E / 35.3705°N 136.4616°E / 35.3705; 136.4616 Result Eastern army victory Beginning of Tokugawa shogunate Territorial changes Tokugawa clan gains nominal control of all Japan
Belligerents
Western Army: Forces loyal to Ishida Mitsunari, many clans from Western Japan	Eastern Army: Forces loyal to Tokugawa Ieyasu, clans of Eastern Japan
Commanders and leaders
Ishida Mitsunari  Ukita Hideie Ōtani Yoshitsugu † Shima Sakon † Chōsokabe Morichika Gamō Yorisato † Shimazu Yoshihiro Shimazu Toyohisa † Akashi Takenori Konishi Yukinaga  Toda Katsushige † Ankokuji Ekei  Mōri Hidemoto Natsuka Masaie † Hiratsuka Tamehiro † Defected : Kobayakawa Hideaki Kikkawa Hiroie Wakisaka Yasuharu Kutsuki Mototsuna Akaza Naoyasu Ogawa Suketada	Tokugawa Ieyasu Fukushima Masanori Tōdō Takatora Hosokawa Tadaoki Ikeda Terumasa Oda Urakusai Ii Naomasa Matsudaira Tadayoshi Kuroda Nagamasa Takenaka Shigekado Honda Tadakatsu Furuta Shigekatsu Katō Yoshiaki Terazawa Hirotaka Ikoma Kazumasa Tsutsui Sadatsugu Horio Tadauji Kanamori Nagachika Asano Yoshinaga Yamauchi Katsutoyo Kyōgoku Takatomo
Strength
120,000 initially,[1] 81,890 by the time of battle[2]	75,000 initially,[1] 88,888 by the time of battle[2]
Casualties and losses
8,000–32,000[3] killed ~23,000 defected	4,000–10,000[4] killed
Location within Gifu Prefecture Show map of Gifu Prefecture Battle of Sekigahara (Japan) Show map of Japan

The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: 関ヶ原の戦い; Kyūjitai: 關ヶ原の戰い, Hepburn romanization: Sekigahara no Tatakai) was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu prefecture, Japan, at the end of the Sengoku period. This battle was fought by the forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu against a coalition of Toyotomi loyalist clans under Ishida Mitsunari, several of which defected before or during the battle, leading to a Tokugawa victory. The Battle of Sekigahara was the largest battle of Japanese feudal history and is often regarded as the most important. Toyotomi's defeat led to the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Tokugawa Ieyasu took three more years to consolidate his position of power over the Toyotomi clan and the various daimyō, but the Battle of Sekigahara is widely considered to be the unofficial beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan for another two and a half centuries until 1868.^[5]

Background

Troop deployment

Ishida, in his home Sawayama Castle, met with Ōtani Yoshitsugu, Mashita Nagamori and Ankokuji Ekei. Here, they forged their alliance, and invited Mōri Terumoto to be its head. They formed what came to be referred to as the Western Army. Mōri seized Osaka Castle for their base of operations, since most of Tokugawa's forces had vacated the area to attack Uesugi.^[11]

The battle

Japanese arquebus (Tanegashima) of the Edo era

Ishida wanted to reinforce Mōri at the impregnable Osaka Castle. This would let Ishida control the capital of Kyoto and challenge the Tokugawa. To this end, Ishida's forces headed for Gifu Castle in order to use it as a staging area to move on Kyoto, since it was controlled by his ally Oda Hidenobu.^[7]

Back in Edo, Tokugawa Ieyasu received news of the situation in the Kansai region and decided to deploy his forces. Ieyasu himself commanded 30,000 men and his subordinates led another 40,000 men. This made up the bulk of what would later be called the Eastern Army.^[12] He had some former Toyotomi daimyō engage with the Western Army, while he split his troops and marched west on the Tōkaidō towards Osaka.

Since the Tokugawa army departed from Edo, it could only take two roads, both of which converged on Gifu Castle. Ieyasu marched on Gifu while Ishida Mitsunari was delayed at Fushimi Castle. This fortress was a halfway point between Osaka and Kyoto and was controlled by the Tokugawa ally Torii Mototada.^[13] Ishida could not risk leaving a force that could attack his rear, so he marched on it. It took him ten days to capture Fushimi, and in that time Gifu Castle had fallen. This forced Ishida Mitsunari to retreat southward in the rain.^[7] The rain was relevant in that the bulk of both armies were equipped with matchlock rifles (tanegashima), which required dry gunpowder to fire. Ishida Mitsunari and his troops were stationed at Ōgaki Castle by mid-October, 1600. They were evaluating their situation when Tokugawa's army arrived two days later at Mino Akasaka, a few miles away from their location.

Initially, the Eastern Army had 75,000 men, while the Western Army numbered 120,000.^[1] Ieyasu had also brought a supply of arquebuses.^[14] Knowing that the Tokugawa forces were heading towards Osaka, Ishida decided to abandon his positions and marched to Sekigahara. Even though the Western army had tremendous tactical advantages, Ieyasu had already been in contact with many of the daimyō in the Western Army for months, promising them land and leniency after the battle should they switch sides.^[14]

Shima Sakon, one of Mitsunari's commanders, requested permission to attack the nearest Tokugawa troops. Later, Sakon clashed with Honda Tadakatsu at the Battle of Kuisegawa. As a result, the Eastern Army suffered significant losses from the battle and had to pull back from the Mino Akasaka territory to Sekigahara. Not wanting to lose the advantage, Mitsunari ordered his army to surround Ieyasu at Sekigahara. Ishida deployed his troops in a strong defensive position, flanked by two streams with high ground on the opposite banks. His right flank was reinforced by daimyō Kobayakawa Hideaki on Mount Matsuo.^[14]

On October 20, 1600, Ieyasu learned that Ishida Mitsunari had deployed his troops at Sekigahara in a defensive position. They had been following the Western Army, and benefited from considerably better weather.

The battle

At dawn on October 21, 1600, the Tokugawa advance guard stumbled into Ishida's army. Neither side saw each other because of the dense fog caused by the earlier rain. Both sides panicked and withdrew, but that resulted in both sides being aware of their adversary's presence.^[14]

Ishida held his defensive position while Ieyasu deployed his forces south of Ishida forces, sending his allies' forces in a line to the front and holding his own troops in reserve. Around 8:00 am, wind blew away the fog, and both sides noticed their respective adversary's positions. Last-minute orders were issued and the battle began.^[15]

Edo-period screen depicting the Battle of Sekigahara – 160,000 men fought on 21 October 1600.

The battle started when Fukushima Masanori, the leader of the Tokugawa advance guard, charged north from the Eastern Army's left flank along the Fuji River against the Western Army's right centre under Ukita Hideie. The ground was still muddy from the previous day's rain, so the conflict there devolved into something more primal. Ieyasu then ordered attacks from his right and centre against the Western Army's left in order to support Fukushima's attack.^[14]

This left the Western Army's centre unscathed, so Ishida ordered this unit under the command of Shimazu Yoshihiro to reinforce his right flank. Shimazu refused as daimyō of the day only listened to respected commanders, which Ishida was not.^[14]

Fukushima's attack was slowly gaining ground, but this came at the cost of exposing their flank to attack from across the Fuji River by Ōtani Yoshitsugu, who took advantage of this opportunity. Just past Ōtani's forces were those of Kobayakawa Hideaki on Mount Matsuo.^[14]

Kobayakawa Hideaki was one of the daimyō who had been courted by Tokugawa. Even though he had agreed to defect to the Tokugawa side, in the actual battle he was hesitant and remained neutral. Some theories mention that as the battle grew more intense, Ieyasu finally ordered his arquebuses to fire at Kobayakawa's position on Mount Matsuo to force a choice. However the sheer distance between the Eastern Army positions and Kobayakawa's, way out of range of arquebuses and even too far for a shot to be heard, make this very unlikely. Kobayakawa eventually joined the battle around noon as a member of the Eastern Army. His forces charged Ōtani's position. Ōtani's forces had dry gunpowder, so they opened fire on the turncoats, making the charge of 16,000 men mostly ineffective.^[15] However, Ōtani's troops were already engaging against forces under the command of Tōdō Takatora and Oda Yūraku when Kobayakawa charged. At this point, the buffer Ōtani established was outnumbered. Seeing this, Western Army daimyos Wakisaka Yasuharu, Ogawa Suketada, Akaza Naoyasu and Kutsuki Mototsuna switched sides, turning the tide of battle.^[16]

Aftermath

Kokudaka of daimyō

○ = Main daimyōs who participated in the Battle of Sekigahara

● = Daimyōs who defected

	Daimyō	Kokudaka (ten thousands)		Daimyō	Kokudaka (ten thousands)
Western Army	Mōri Terumoto	121.0	Eastern Army	Tokugawa Ieyasu ○	256.0
	Uesugi Kagekatsu	120.0		Maeda Toshinaga	84.0
	Satake Yoshinobu	54.0		Date Masamune	58.0
	Shimazu Yoshihiro ○	73.0		Katō Kiyomasa	20.0
	Ukita Hideie ○	57.0		Fukushima Masanori ○	24.0
	Ishida Mitsunari ○	19.4		Hosokawa Tadaoki ○	18.0
	Konishi Yukinaga ○	20.0		Asano Yoshinaga ○	16.0
	Mashita Nagamori	20.0		Ikeda Terumasa ○	15.0
	Ogawa Suketada ●	7.0		Kuroda Nagamasa ○	18.0
	Ōtani Yoshitsugu ○	5.0		Katō Yoshiaki ○	10.0
	Wakisaka Yasuharu ●	3.0		Tanaka Yoshimasa ○	10.0
	Ankokuji Ekei ○	6.0		Tōdō Takatora ○	11.0
	Kobayakawa Hideaki ●	37.0		Mogami Yoshiaki	24.0
	Oda Hidenobu	13.5		Yamauchi Kazutoyo ○	6.0
	Chōsokabe Morichika ○	22.0		Hachisuka Yoshishige	17.7
	Kutsuki Mototsuna ●	2.0		Honda Tadakatsu ○	(10.0)
	Akaza Naoyasu ●	2.0		Terazawa Hirotaka ○	8.0
	Kikkawa Hiroie ●	(14.2)		Ikoma Kazumasa ○	15.0
	Natsuka Masaie ○	5.0		Ii Naomasa ○	(12.0)
	Mōri Hidemoto ○	(20.0)		Matsudaira Tadayoshi ○	13.0
	Toda Katsushige ○	1.0		Tsutsui Sadatsugu ○	20.0
	Sanada Masayuki	4.0		Kyōgoku Takatomo ○	10.0

Chronology

Below is a chronology of the events leading up to the final battle of Sekigahara 1600:

• May 7 – Ieyasu asks Uesugi Kagekatsu for explanations for his military mobilization. Kagekatsu refuses Ieyasu.
• June 8 – Ieyasu calls his allies to punish the Uesugi.
• July 12 – Ieyasu holds a meeting in Osaka to plan the punishment of the Uesugi, attended by Hosokawa Tadaoki, Date Masamune, Mogami Yoshiaki, Satake Yoshinobu and Nanbu Toshinao.
• July 26 – Ieyasu leaves Fushimi Castle after meeting with Torii Mototada.
• August 16 – Mitsunari meets with Ōtani Yoshitsugu and convinces him to take sides against the Tokugawa.
• August 17 – Ishida Mitsunari, Ankokuji Ekei, Ōtani Yoshitsugu and Mashita Nagamori meet in Sawayama and agree to ask Mōri Terumoto to become commander in chief of the alliance. Nagamori secretly sends Ieyasu news about the meeting.
• August 19 – Siege of Tanabe, while Hosokawa Tadaoki was joining army to attack Uesugi, Mitsunari western army, Ikoma Chikamasa forces, attack Tanabe castle led by Onoki Shigekatsu against Hosokawa Fujitaka.
• August 22 – Mōri Terumoto arrives at Osaka Castle and takes command of the Western Alliance.
• August 23 - Battle of Gifu Castle begins, Oda Hidenobu of the western forces against Ikeda Terumasa, Ikeda Sen and Fukushima Masanori of the eastern forces.
• August 27 – Siege of Fushimi, led by Mitsunari and Kobayakawa Hideaki.
• August 29 – Ieyasu establishes his headquarters in Oyama, Shizuoka to discuss strategy with allies.
• August 30 – Battle of Asai, Maeda Toshinaga for the Eastern coalition, stems a force of Niwa Nagashige supported by Uesugi Kagekatsu.
• September 1 – Siege of Shiroishi, Uesugi Kagekatsu loses Shiroishi Castle to Date Masamune's pro-Tokugawa troops .
• September 6 - fall of Tanabe castle to the western army and Fujitaka entered Kameyama castle, the lord of which was Maeda Shigekatsu, western general, in Tanba.
• September 7 – Maeda Toshinaga (Tokugawa ally) attacks his brother, Toshimasa, and besieges Daishoji Castle. The commander of the garrison, Yamaguchi Munenaga, commits seppuku.
• September 8 – fall of Fushimi castle, Torii Mototada and Matsudaira Ietada dies.
• September 10 – Ieyasu returns to Edo Castle from Oyama.
• September 15 – Mitsunari's Western army arrives at Ogaki Castle.
• September 29 – Nabeshima Naoshige and other Western Army generals besiege Matsuoka Castle. The Army of the East occupies the heights of Akasaka, near Ogaki Castle.
• September 29 – Fall of Gifu Castle into the hands of the Eastern coalition. Tokugawa Hidetada heads towards Nakasendo.
• September 30 – Mōri Hidemoto lays siege to Annotsu Castle held by Tomita Nobutaka.
• October 1 – Mitsunari returns to Sawayama Castle from Ogaki, asking Terumoto to move. Terumoto was at Osaka Castle defending Toyotomi Hideyori.
• October 7 – Ieyasu leaves Edo at the head of 30,000 men towards Tokaido.
• October 9 – Hidetada reaches Komoro, Nagano and against the orders of his father, diverts his forces towards Ueda.
• October 12 – Ieyasu passes through Shimada in Suruga. Hidetada camps in Sometani village to besieged Ueda Castle against Sanada Masayuki.
• October 13 – Ieyasu passes through Nakaizumi in Tōtōmi. Mōri Hidemoto and Kikkawa Hiroie enters Mino and sets up camp near Mount Nangu. Mōri Hidekane, Tachibana Muneshige and Tsukushi Hirokado besiege Ōtsu Castle, held for Ieyasu by Kyōgoku Takatsugu.
• October 14 - Ieyasu receives a secret messenger from Kobayakawa Hideaki, who offers him support. Naoe Kanetsugu leads the Uesugi forces against Mogami Yoshiaki at the Siege of Hasedo.
• October 16 – Hidetada abandons the Siege of Ueda Castle and heads to Mino.
• October 19 – Ieyasu arrives at Gifu castle in Mino. Kuroda Yoshitaka defeats Ōtomo Yoshimune and other Mitsunari allied generals at the Battle of Ishigakibara.
• October 20 – Ieyasu moves to Akasaka. The two coalitions make contact at Kuisegawa, near Akasaka. The Eastern force retreats to Sekigahara. The Western coalition heads to Sekigahara from Ogaki Castle.
• October 21 – Battle of Sekigahara
• October - siege of Yanagawa is the last battle of the Kyūshū Sekigahara Campaign.
• October 30 – Date Masamune tries to conquer Fukushima Castle but retires. (In May 1601, during the Battle of Matsukawa, Masamune is repelled by Honjō Shigenaga)
• November 5 - Naoe Kanetsugu called a full withdrawal of all Uesugi forces, putting an end to Uesugi's campaigns in the north.

Notable figures

Before the fateful confrontation in Sekigahara, Ishida Mitsunari claimed Osaka Castle and planned to take hostages from relatives loyal to Toyotomi. He hoped to use them to force his rival generals to join his cause. He sought to make noblewomen Hosokawa Gracia, Yamauchi Chiyo and Kushihashi Teru as political hostages, and other women were targets of Mitsunari's plan.

When Mitsunari's soldiers threatened to take Hosokawa's home, Hosokawa Gracia was killed to protect her honor by a family soldier named Ogasawara Shōsai. He and the rest of the residents committed seppuku to avoid capture. As the last notable survivor of the Akechi clan, the clan responsible for the death of Oda Nobunaga, Gracia's death impacted both armies. The incident did much damage to Ishida's reputation, which greatly reduced his chances of recruiting more allies, some of whom were also secretly Christians.

After Hideyoshi's death, Kodain-in (Hideyoshi's chief consort) left Osaka Castle and lived as a castellan in Kyoto. Hideyoshi's second wife, Yodo-dono, inherited the political power of both figures, as Hideyori was too young to lead the Toyotomi clan. Yodo-dono was present in the maintenance of the Western army, although she did not play a very notable role during the campaign. Subsequently, Ieyasu began to receive hostages, nobles who were involved with the Mitsunari army, such as Maeda Matsu, whose son, Maeda Toshimasa, was involved in the Western army, while her other son, Maeda Toshinaga, was an ally of the Eastern army. After Ieyasu defeated Mitsunari in Sekigahara, Kodain-in received several women from the Western army at her home.

Kuki Yoshitaka, one of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi's top generals, fought alongside the western forces, while his son Kuki Moritaka joined the eastern forces, under Tokugawa Ieyasu. Following Tokugawa's victory, his son successfully guaranteed Yoshitaka's safety from Ieyasu. In a turn of fate, Yoshitaka committed seppuku before the news from Moritaka reached him.

Legend has it that the rōnin Miyamoto Musashi was present at the battle among Ukita Hideie's army and escaped the defeat of Hideie's forces unharmed. Musashi would have been around 16 years of age at the time. There is no hard evidence to prove whether Musashi was present or not for the battle. According to one account, the Musashi yuko gamei, "Musashi's achievements stood out from the crowd, and were known by the soldiers in all camps."^[27] Musashi is reticent on the matter, writing only that he had "participated in over six battles since my youth".^[28]

The cannons from the Liefde, the trading ship that English sailor William Adams came to Japan on, were used by Tokugawa's forces at Sekigahara.^[29] It is unlikely Adams himself was at the battle, although some fictional accounts have entertained the possibility.

Battlefield

Sekigahara battlefield memorials, in April 2005

The site of the battle was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1931. The site encompasses the sites of the initial position of Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康最初陣地), the final position of Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康最後陣地), the position of Ishida Mitsunari (石田三成陣地), the Okayama beacon (岡山烽火場), the grave of Ōtani Yoshitsugu (大谷吉隆墓), the east kubizuka (東首塚), and the west kubizuka (西首塚)^[30]

Cultural depictions

The Battle of Sekigahara has been depicted in a number of works of literature. Ryōtarō Shiba wrote a three-volume historical novel called Sekigahara on it in the 1960s. James Clavell's 1975 novel, Shōgun, includes a fictionalized version of both the political struggle and the battle.^[31] Tokyo Broadcasting System aired a television miniseries about the subject in January 1981, also entitled Sekigahara, loosely based on Shiba's novel series. It featured actors Hisaya Morishige, Gō Katō and Rentarō Mikuni.

The battle did not get a full movie featuring it until 2017, with previous inclusions generally only including a brief snippet in passing, such as the beginning of the 1954 movie Samurai I or the 1991 film Journey of Honor. This changed with the 2017 film Sekigahara, which covers the rivalry between Ishida Mitsunari and Tokugawa Ieyasu before leading to the battle itself in the final third of the film. The film is somewhat notable in being a revisionist reassessment, showing Tokugawa more as an antagonist while Mitsunari is a man of honor and the main protagonist.^[32] The 2008 BBC docudrama television series Heroes and Villains includes an episode which depicts the battle.^[33] The anime Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings depicts the different alliances and armies from a more fantastic (and less realistic) viewpoint, with a less bloody conclusion, most notably the Sengoku Basara: The Last Party.

The 2000 video game Kessen is set during the conflict between Tokugawa and Toyotomi clan, and features the Battle of Sekigahara. It also provides an alternate scenario in case the Western forces win the battle. GMT Games produced the 2011 block wargame Sekigahara: Unification of Japan, which attempts to reflect the patchy loyalties of the armies involved by having randomized cards represent the loyalty of specific armies; players know which of their units are "reliable" but their opponents are not necessarily sure.^[34] The 2017 video game Nioh includes a mission related to the battle and features heavily fictionalized versions of the events leading up to it.^[35]

See also

• William Adams

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Bryant, Anthony (1995). Sekigahara 1600: The Final Struggle For Power. Osprey Campaign Series. Vol. 40. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85532-395-7.
• Davis, Paul (1999). "Sekigahara, 21 October 1600". 100 Decisive Battles: From Ancient Times to the Present. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-514366-9.
• Wilson, William Scott (2004). The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi. Tokyo: Kodansha International.

Further reading

Paul Davis used the following sources to compile the chapter "Sekigahara, 21 October 1600" in 100 Decisive Battles: From Ancient Times to the Present "Sekigahara, 21 October 1600."

• De Lange, William. Samurai Battles: The Long Road to Unification Groningen: Toyo Press, 2020
• Sadler, A.L. The Maker of Modern Japan: The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu London: George Allen & Unwin, 1937
• Sansom, George. A History of Japan from 1334–1615 Stanford University Press, 1961
• Turnbull, Stephen. The Samurai: A Military History New York: Macmillan, 1977

External links

• SengokuDaimyo.com The website of samurai author and historian Anthony J. Bryant. Bryant is the author of the above-mentioned Sekigahara 1600: The Final Struggle for Power.
• Several strategy war games based on the battle: Sekigahara: Unification of Japan