Battle of Sekigahara
Representation from the Edo period
| date | October 21, 1600 |
|---|---|
| place | Sekigahara ( Mino Province , Japan ) |
| output | Decisive victory for the House of Tokugawa, unification of Japan, beginning of the Edo era |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's armed forces |
Tokugawa Ieyasu Armed Forces |
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 80,000-120,000 men | 60,000-80,000 men |
| losses | |
|
approx. 40,000 |
moderate |
The Battle of Sekigahara ( Japanese 関 ヶ 原 の 戦 い , Sekigahara no tatakai ) on October 21, 1600 represented a turning point in Japanese history . By winning this battle, the House of Tokugawa succeeded in consolidating its supremacy in Japan. There were a few minor uprisings over the next fifty years, but the country was ultimately pacified. Many historians place the transition from the Sengoku period to the Edo period on the date of this battle.
prehistory
The Taiko Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the sole ruler of Japan, died on 18 September 1598th In his will, he appointed a regency council of five daimyo who were to rule the empire until his son was of legal age. Tokugawa Ieyasu was suspected by the other rulers of striving for the office of shogun . The counter-faction then formed around Ishida Mitsunari . However, through clever alliance policy, Ieyasu managed to attract most of the other daimyōs of the empire to his side. In the middle of the rainy season, the two parties declared war on each other. Ieyasu then attacked while it was raining, an extremely unorthodox strategy. In the run-up to the battle, it was important that Torii Mototada with the garrison of Fushimi Castle withstood a siege by the far superior army of Ishida Mitsunari for ten days before the castle fell. This gave Ieyasu the opportunity to set up a powerful army. However, the garrison was completely wiped out and Mototada committed seppuku .
Parties involved
On the side of Tokugawa Ieyasu (Tokugawa clan) Hosokawa Tadaoki Honda Tadakatsu Kyōgoku Takatsugu Ikeda Terumasa Fukushima Masanori Yamanouchi Kazutoyo Kuroda Nagamasa Ii Naomasa Tōdō Takatora Ikoma Masamune
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On the side of Ishida Mitsunari † (Toyotomi clan) Ukita Hideie Mōri Terumoto Chōsokabe Morichika Konishi Yukinaga † Sanada Masayuki Shimazu Yoshihiro Ōtani Yoshitsugu Shimazu Toyohisa Ankokuji Ekei
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The battle
The Battle of Sekigahara took place near the village of the same name in what is now Gifu Prefecture (then in the Mino Province ). The armies of Ishida Mitsunari and Tokugawa Ieyasu faced each other. The night before, a westerly storm hit and the poor weather conditions demoralized the troops. The decisive role was to be played by the 8,000 men under the command of Kobayakawa Hideaki , whose night camp was on Matsuo Hill.
Ishida Mitsunari didn't arrive in Sekigahara until after midnight with about 70,000 men. The rain blocked their vision, and they often sank into knee-deep mud. The march was the most critical phase of the two-month campaign during which Mitsunari fought for rule with the eastern ruler Tokugawa Ieyasu . A clash the day before had revealed Ieyasu's strength - his army was numerically about as strong as Mitsunari's - and indicated his strategy: to move over the pass of Sekigahara and take the capital Kyoto and the strategically important port Osaka . Here in Sekigahara, where the mountains protected his flanks, Mitsunari hoped to force the Tokugawa troops advancing westward to a decisive battle.
At dusk a storm swept over the armies. It brought thick fog. Visibility was only a few paces, and only the noise of the men ahead guided the troops. It was therefore some time before anyone realized that the stamping of marching soldiers was not just from Mitsunari's men: the Tokugawa army vanguard had fallen into their ranks.
There was confusion for a short time. The fog only allowed both sides to proceed in a disorderly manner. The Tokugawa vanguard took up positions while the rest of the army arrived. After an hour the fog cleared and crawled up the slopes of nearby Mount Ibuki . Now Sekigahara was clearly visible. The battle began. From the safe hill, Hideaki watched the battle rage for four hours. According to the preconceived plan, he had to wait until the Tokugawa Army was fully involved in the battle. Then he should storm down here and attack them on their left flank. Around noon it finally happened. About 60,000 of Ieyasu's men pushed into the valley, and Mitsunari signaled Hideaki to attack.
But no one moved on Matsuo Hill. The 22-year-old Hideaki had been waiting for weeks. In every battle fought on Mitsunari's side, the young general had protected himself against failure by giving the enemy certain assurances. Even now he was no exception. Tokugawa Ieyasu figured that the troops on the hill would play for him the role that Mitsunari expected. At first he was disappointed too. Hideaki was still undecided which side to support and didn't respond to the signal. It was only when Tokugawa put him under pressure with a hail of arrows that he ordered his troops to advance against Mitsunari.
Mitsunari wasn't completely unprepared. He knew about the duplicity of his ally, but was surprised that more of his leaders on the right flank were directed towards Hideaki, who could now attack Mitsunari's allied troops from behind. Mitsunari's men fled west over the pass to Lake Biwa .
The way to Osaka was now open to Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Processing in art
- The Manga Samurai Deeper Kyo is based on the Battle of Sekigahara.
- The novel Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa begins with the end of the battle .
- In the PS2 - strategy game Kessen and the game Samurai Warriors 2 , you can re-enact the battle, since 2011 in the PC game Total War: Shogun 2 .
- In his novel, James Clavell processed shogun experiences shortly before the Battle of Sekigahara. In the television series of the same name , the last scene is the decisive battle for Prince Toranaga, played by Toshirō Mifune , who is modeled on the historical figure of the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate , Tokugawa Ieyasu .
- Various board games deal with the battle, the most famous of which is probably the card-controlled block wargame Sekigahara: The Unification of Japan , published in 2011 by the US publisher GMT Games .
- Ronin. David Kirk's Book of Retribution includes the Battle of Sekigahara at the end.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sekigahara: The Unification of Japan. Retrieved March 12, 2018 .