Battle of Sekigahara
21 October 1600 · in Battle View, played out step by step on the ground where it was fought
Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated a western coalition, securing control of Japan.
The sides
- Eastern army, led by Tokugawa Ieyasu: about 89,000 men
- Western army, led by Ishida Mitsunari: about 81,000 men
States that fought: Warring States Japan, Tokugawa Shogunate.
How it went
Battle of Sekigahara
The great unifier Toyotomi Hideyoshi has died, leaving a boy as heir. Japan's lords split between Tokugawa Ieyasu, the strongest of them, and those who rally to Ishida Mitsunari in the boy's name. Their armies meet at the crossroads of Sekigahara, in a narrow valley between the mountains.
In the fog
The Western army waits on the hillsides around the west of the valley; the Eastern army fills the valley below. Behind it, on Mount Nangu, sit the Mōri, and on Mount Matsuo, above the Western flank, Kobayakawa Hideaki. Both have been talking to Ieyasu.
The battle opens
When the fog lifts at eight, Ii Naomasa's men open fire on Ukita, and the whole line goes in: Fukushima against Ukita, Kuroda and Hosokawa up the slope against Ishida.
Stalemate
By noon the West is holding, even winning. Ishida lights the signal fire for Kobayakawa and the Mōri to attack. Neither moves. Ieyasu, losing patience, is said to have had his guns fire at Mount Matsuo to make Kobayakawa decide.
Kobayakawa turns
Kobayakawa comes down the mountain and attacks his own side: Ōtani Yoshitsugu's men. Ōtani holds him off, until Wakisaka and three other lords below the mountain turn on him too. Ōtani kills himself, and the Western flank is gone.
The West collapses
Ukita's and Konishi's men break and run into the mountains. The Shimazu, cut off, charge straight through the Eastern army to the east and get away, a few hundred left out of 1,500.
Sekigahara
Ishida Mitsunari is caught days later and beheaded in Kyoto. In 1603 Ieyasu becomes shōgun, and his family rules Japan for the next 265 years.
Numbers after the usual Japanese counts, which differ by thousands. The Western army includes the Mōri on Mount Nangu and Kobayakawa on Mount Matsuo, who never fought for it.
People and wars
- Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543 CE – 1616 CE): Founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan for over 260 years.