Ch 13 - The Hermit Kingdom

The Final Showdown

Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan's most powerful daimyo, and Lord Ishida Mitsunari,guardian of the heir Toyotomi Hideyori, clashed over who would become the next shogun. Japan's two most powerful daimyo marshaled large armies and met on the fields at the small village of Sekigahara for a final showdown.

Before his death, Toyotomi Hideyoshi hand-picked five of his most trusted daimyo (Maeda Toshiie, Mori Terumoto, Uesugi Kagekatsu, Ukita Hideie and Tokugawa Ieyasu) as a Council of Regents to advise and assist his son and successor, Hideyori, in ruling Japan. He entrusted the care of his son to Maeda Toshiie and Tokugawa Ieyasu, two men who had been close allies of Oda Nobunaga. Three years after Oda Nobunaga's army attacked the Ikko Buddhist sect in Kanazawa, destroying their religious government and the Gobo temple, Lord Maeda Toshiie entered the city and built the Kanazawa Castle on the former temple site in 1583. Lord Maeda ruled the largest and one of the wealthiest domains in Japan, with an estimated annual rice production of over 5 million bushels.

Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had opposed Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea from the start and managed to avoid any major involvement in the two wars, dominated the Council of Regents. This wealthy daimyo from the Mikawa-Suruga region of eastern Honshu, ruled a domain over twice the size of any other daimyo. His wealth, measured in terms of the rice yield of his land holdings, was 2.5 million koku, or about 12.5 million bushels. The most powerful man in Japan after Toyotomi Hideyoshi's death, Tokugawa was determined to preserve the unity Hideyoshi brought to Japan. He soon made it plain he did not respect Hideyori and was in no mood to support the dead general's five-year-old son. He wanted to become the absolute ruler of Japan himself. Just as happened among the daimyo responsible for counseling Oda Nobunaga's son, Hideyori's Council of Regents became enmeshed in a vicious scramble for power.

Tokugawa Ieyasu took up residence in Hideyoshi's Fushimi-Momoyama Castle in Kyoto, while Maeda Toshiie watched over Hideyori at the mighty Osaka Castle. Hideyoshi had forbid political marriages, since they tended to forge alliances among the daimyo. Tokugawa Ieyasu felt no obligation to follow such an edict and began laying plans to make his family line the new heirs to Japan's leadership. He began by arranging a political marriage between his son and Lord Date Masumune's daughter. Not long afterward, he arranged a wedding between his daughter and the son of Lord Fukushima Masanori.

Over the next few years, Tokugawa gradually consolidated his already substantial power in Japan. Numerous daimyo already viewed him as their de facto lord. Carefully watching Tokugawa's strategy from Osaka, Maeda Toshiie grew evermore concerned about Lord Tokugawa's maneuvering. Lord Ishida Mitsunari, one of the five government commissioners appointed to oversee control of the capital, voiced the first complaints against Tokugawa. Tokugawa rebuffed a demand from Ishida and his colleagues that he resign, which pushed the frustrated Ishida into a failed assassination attempt against Ieyasu. When Maeda Toshiie's son joined forces with Tokugawa after his father's death, Toyotomi Hideyori was left without a guardian. Lord Tokugawa moved into the vacuum by taking up residence in Osaka Castle and became Hideyori's full-time guardian. This situation prompted Lord Ishida and the others to draw up a list of 13 charges, which they forwarded to Osaka Castle. Lord Tokugawa interpreted the document as nothing less than a declaration of war.

Japan's most powerful daimyo quickly began taking sides in the developing struggle, forming two great armies behind the contending warlords. Based in his comparatively new castle at Edo (modern Tokyo) and supported by his family, the Matsudaira, Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu stood as the most powerful individual land-owner in Japan. He had successfully gained the allegiance of such notable daimyo families as the Kato, the Hosokawa, and the Kuroda and held the loyalty of a number of highly skilled commanders, including General Ii Naomasa, who had fought by his side in numerous campaigns. He was without doubt the most ruthless and powerful of the contending warlords. His distinguished military career proved him to be just as pitiless as the next man in the ensuing struggle for supremacy. In light of their strong power base in eastern Japan, Tokugawa's forces are usually called the "Army of the East," or Easterners.

Lord Ishida Mitsunari, better known for his political skills than for his military expertise, commanded forces loyal to Lord Mori Terumoto. Ishida's claim that he supported the interests of Hideyoshi's son, Hideyori, attracted many former allies of the old warlord to his side. Many daimyo from famous families of the recent past rallied to his side, including the Mori of Choshu in western Honshu, the Kobayakawa, the Kikkawa, the Ukita, and the Shimazu of Satsuma. Since most of these families had their power base in western Japan, Ishida's forces are usually called the "Army of the West," or Westerners.

The growing tension erupted into open fighting in July 1600, when Lord Tokugawa was drawn away from the Regent's Council at Osaka to defend his eastern domains from the potential threat of Lord Uesugi Kagekatsu, who was allied with the Ishida Mitsunari faction. After Tokugawa and his allies Date Masumune and Mogami Yoshiakira marched from Osaka to subdue Lord Uesugi, Mori Terumoto took advantage of the situation and moved into Osaka on July 22 and established his military headquarters in the great castle.

With Tokugawa militarily engaged in the east, Lord Ishida promptly called his Western allies to arms to mount a surprise attack against the Eastern Army's rear. The tactic was no surprise to Tokugawa however, whose elaborate spy network kept him constantly informed of exactly what was going on around Kyoto. On July 27, Lord Tokugawa's troops attacked Lord Ishida at Fushimi Castle just south of Kyoto, inflicting 3,000 casualties in a ten-day siege that kept Ishida's forces pinned down in the west. Meanwhile, Tokugawa gathered his allies and set off from Edo in August in a feigned attack against his northern neighbor. He then turned west with his main body of troops to thwart Lord Ishida's intended line of campaign. Moving swiftly, he caught his enemies by surprise on September 28, capturing Gifu Castle, a heavily defended hilltop stronghold overlooking the Nagara River, and the nearby Konosu Castle. The campaign succeeded in blocking the highways into Edo.

News of Tokugawa Ieyasu's lightning-fast advance shocked Lord Ishida, who was at Ogaki Castle, having been delayed by the protracted siege of Fushimi Castle. Furthermore, misinformation spread by Lord Tokugawa's spies confused him into believing that the next advance would be to bypass the mighty Ogaki Castle altogether and attack Ishida's own stronghold at Sawayama, west of the village of Sekigahara . Lord Ishida knew well that such a move would open the Nakasendo Road and leave the path open for Tokugawa's forces to march unopposed to Kyoto, Osaka Castle and the young Toyotomi Hideyori.

Lord Tokugawa rode from Edo at the head of a 30,000-man army on October 7 to join his allies encamped on the plains northwest of Ogaki near the village of Akasaka. The arrival of Tokugawa's forces on October 20, less than three miles northwest of his position in the mighty Ogaki Castle, convinced Lord Ishida that his rival was indeed going after Sawayama. That night, Lord Ishida Mitsunari, commanding general of the "Army of the West," made a fateful decision. He ordered his army to withdraw from Ogaki and march twelve miles west to defend against Tokugawa's advancing forces and to block any further westward movement by the "Army of the East." General Kobayakawa Hideaki, whose samurai were already positioned on a hill overlooking the Nakasendo Road and the tiny village of Sekigahara, convinced Lord Ishida that he should defend that area in strength.

Lord Ishida's army endured a night march through the height of a fierce rainstorm that lashed the countryside with strong winds and blinding rain. Other units under Ishida's command marched west along the Nakasendo Road from the village of Tarui to rendezvous at Sekigahara. By the time Ishida's Western Army assembled in the narrow pass at Sekigahara and took up defensive positions, every warrior was totally drenched by the bone-chilling storm. The withdrawal from Ogaki played right into Lord Tokugawa's hands, because despite his inferior numbers, he excelled in open-field combat.

When Lord Tokugawa learned that Ishida had moved his entire army west to Sekigahara, the Eastern Army quickly mobilized and began a night march west from Akasaka along the Nakasendo Road. Leaving the encampment near Akasaka, the Easterners. After a short battle near the virtually undefended Ogaki Castle, Tokugawa's Easterners took control of the Nakasendo Road. Bypassing the strong castle position at Ogaki, the Easterners avoided a costly siege against superior numbers. The worst of the rainstorm had passed by the time Lord tokugawa's men began their march toward Sekigahara, but weather conditions were still so bad that Tokugawa's advance guard inadvertently walked into the rear guard of Ishida's Western forces marching in the same direction as they moved through the village of Tarui.

Sekigahara straddled the Nakasendo Road at the junction of the Ise Road running south and the Hokkoku Road running northwest. Lord Ishida Mitsunari and 4,000 samurai established a headquarters camp behind a palisade on the lower slopes of Mount Sasao overlooking the Hokkoku Road from the northern flank of the valley. To his front, 2,000 samurai under the command of Gamo Bitchu and Shima Sakon readied for battle. Positioned behind Ishida's main force were another 2,000 Toyotomi samurai under Oda Nobutaka, Kishida Tadauji, and Ito Morimasa. The Western Army battle line extended southeast from Ishida's position across the valley floor west of Sekigahara, crossing the Nakasendo Road at Fuwa, site of the old 7th century barrier station. The Shimazu's 3,000 troops took up position on a small hill to protect Ishida's right flank. General Konishi Yukinaga commanded 4,000 Christian samurai on Shimazu's right.

Lord Ishida apparently anticipated the heart of the battle would occur along the Hokkoku Road in the center of the valley north of Sekigahara. On the valley floor between the Hokkoku Road and the Fuji River, General Ukita Hideie commanded 17,000 warriors protecting the center of the battle line on General Konishi's right flank. Another 2,100 samurai under Toda, Hiratsuka and the aging Otani Yoshitsugu defended the western edge of the valley floor. Lord Ishida positioned Otani Yoshimatsu's 3,500 battle-hardened samurai on a small heavily wooded hill overlooking Fuwa from the north to protect Yoshitsugu's right flank. Within hours, the lush terrain around Otani's highly trusted command would become a bloody killing ground and the site of the most crucial stage of the impending battle.

Lord Ishida had nagging doubts about the loyalty of some of his commanders to his cause. Unwilling to offend the lot and turn them decidedly against him, Ishida gave the prestigious command of the Western Army's right wing to General Kobayakawa Hideaki, whose loyalty was most in doubt. Kobayakawa's 15,600 samurai were already encamped at the southeastern end of the battle line on a small hill below Mount Nangu overlooking the Nakasendo Road from the south. Ishida believed that sitting so far to the south, Kobayakawa would have little impact on the most serious fighting in the center of the valley. As fate would have it, General Kobayakawa would later confirm Ishida's worst fears.

Moving slowly in conditions where visibility was a matter of yards, Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu's "Army of the East" deployed its battle line somewhat haphazardly during the cold, damp night of October 20-21, depending more on what they could hear from Ishida's lines than on hard intelligence of Ishida's actual positions. Strung out through the village of Sekigahara itself, the greatest weight of Tokugawa's forces were arrayed toward the northern flanks of the valley. In many spots the two sides were just yards apart, certainly within musket range of each other.

Lord Tokugawa set up his headquarters camp east of Sekigahara on a small promontory south of the Nakasendo Road, a position from which he could observe the battle's progress. With his personal command of 30,000 samurai stretched across the Nakasendo Road in reserve well behind the main battle lines, Tokugawa extended his front line troops in a long line stretching from Mount Sasao to Sekigahara. At the northernmost end of the line were 5,400 samurai under command of General Kuroda Nagamasa. On his left flank were the 5,000 samurai of General Hosokawa Tadaoki, followed in turn by General Kato Yoshiaki's 3,000 troops and 2,850 samurai under General Tsutsui Sadatsugu. General Fukushima Masanori dispersed his 6,000 samurai between the Nakasendo Road and Fuji River, a spot that placed him directly in front of General Ukita Hideie's 17,000 warriors.

Standing ready behind the first line of battle, just north of Sekigahara along the Hokkoku Road, General Ii Naomasa's 3,600 samurai, known as the "red devils," backed by 3,000 warriors under command of General Matsudaira Tadayoshi, moved into position north of Sekigahara along the Hokkoku Road, roughly in the center of the Eastern Army's lines. In the third line, dispersed along the Nakasendo Road south of the village, 4,600 samurai under the commands of Furuta Shigekatsu, Oda Yuraku, Kanamori Nagachika, and Ikoma Kazumasa stood ready for battle. Honda Tadakatsu and Tagawa Michiyasu commanded another 900 men stationed along the Ise Road to the southeast of the village.

Few among the men forming ranks in the hills and valleys near Sekigahara on that dark night of October 20, 1600, doubted that a decisive battle was about to take place. The two massive armies, cold, wet and itching for battle, awaited first light and the chance to finally settle the decades-long civil strife among contending clans for leadership of Japan. It had been only two years since Toyotomi Hideyoshi had died, the last man with the power and strength to unify Japan, but who lacked the breeding and authority to become shogun. Ever since that time, Japan's most powerful daimyo, men of noble birth and regents to Hideyoshi's young heir, had continued feuding for absolute power. Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu and Lord Ishida Mitsunari, the two most powerful contenders for the shogunate, were about to throw 154,000 samurai warriors into battle for the final showdown.