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Despite its modest size, Japan was a battlefield throughout its history.
The number of foreign incursions was relatively small, while the culture was homogeneous
so the wars were internal and feudal in their nature.
These conflicts continued for centuries and featured many decisive battles.
But none of them was as important as the Battle of Sekigahara.
One of the biggest of its period, it decided the fate of Japan for the next 250 years.
In the late 15th century, Japan entered a period called the Age of Warring States.
The authority of the Emperors had been a formality for centuries and now the real rulers,
the Shoguns from the Ashikaga clan, also lost control.
Small regional conflicts and a deteriorating economic situation became the symbols of this era.
Enter military leader, Oda Nobunaga.
In 1559, he consolidated his home province—Owari.
A year later, Nobunaga fended off an attack from the Imagawa clan.
And in 1567, defeated the Saito and conquered their lands.
The heir to the shogunate, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, was exiled from the capital, Kyoto, and asked Nobunaga for help.
In 1568, Nobunaga defeated the rebels and raised Yoshiaki to power.
He continued fighting his neighbors and in 1569, captured the province of Ise
and one of the biggest cities in Japan at the time—Sakai.
Nobunaga was eager to gain even more power
and in the same year he sent the Shogun a letter with 16 demands, limiting his authority.
Although Yoshiaki initially agreed, he started allying himself with the enemies of Nobunaga:
the Azai, Asakura, and Takeda clans.
Conflict with these enemies began in 1570
and despite receiving help from the Tokugawa clan,
Nobunaga was on the losing end of the first battles.
In 1573, his ally, Tokugawa Ieyasu, lost the Battle of Mikatagahara.
Thankfully for Nobunaga, the leader of the Takeda clan, Shingen, died of illness during the same year
and that allowed Nobunaga to defeat the Azai and Asakura.
The Shogun was exiled yet again,
and his second attempt to organize an alliance in 1576 failed.
By 1582, most of central Japan was under Nobunaga's control.
Nobunaga used trade with Portuguese merchants to his advantage.
The gunpowder weapons bought from them strengthened his military power.
Arquebusiers started replacing archers in Japanese armies.
Nobunaga allowed Christianity to prosper in Japan and wore European attires.
His cruelty against the Buddhist temples and ruthless pragmatism against his subordinates
eventually became his undoing.
In 1582, his general, Akechi Mitsuhide, rebelled against Nobunaga.
Surrounded in Kyoto, Nobunaga had no other choice but to commit suicide—seppuku.
Nobunaga's two main allies, Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, vied for his position.
But it was Hideyoshi who defeated Akechi Mitsuhide in the Battle of Yamazaki
and that gave him the support of the Oda clan.
As he was not a noble and couldn't become Shogun,
in 1585, he was declared the Imperial regent—kampaku.
By 1590, he defeated the Hojo clan, thus uniting Japan under his authority.
Japan was now looking outwards.
Hideyoshi attempted to invade Korea on two occasions.
We will probably talk about these campaigns in the future
but suffice to say that despite some initial successes, these invasions failed.
On the home front, Hideyoshi was eager to secure the succession of power within his family.
Initially his nephew, Hidetsugu, was declared an heir.
But in 1593, a new son, Hideyori, was born and made an heir.
In 1598, Hideyoshi fell ill.
Immediately, he appointed the five strongest feudal lords of Japan to be regents to his son.
These five regents promised to rule alongside five civil administrators until Hideyori came of age.
In the same year, Hideyoshi passed away.
The ruling council started weaving intrigues almost immediately.
The most powerful of the regents, Tokugawa Ieyasu,
entered into multiple dynastic marriages with other clans.
Meanwhile, one of the civil administrators, Ishida Mitsunari, began scheming to weaken Ieyasu’s position.
Mitsunari attempted to assassinate his opponent, but the killers failed.
The death of another regent, Maeda Toshiie, in 1599 worsened the situation.
Ieyasu took control of Osaka Castle, where young Hideyori resided.
Regent Uesugi Kagekatsu started building a new fortress on his borders with Tokugawa.
As his envoys were insulted, Ieyasu left Osaka with his army in July of 1560 to punish Kagekatsu.
Eight members of the council led by Mitsunari used his absence
and addressed an ultimatum to Ieyasu in August.
A war became inevitable.
Mitsunari and his supporters declared themselves loyal to Hideyori
and formed what is now called the Western Army.
Tokugawa and his allies are now known as the Eastern Army.
The leader of the Western Army hoped that Ieyasu would be kept busy with Kagekatsu.
His plan was to take the main roads connecting Edo and Kyoto.
The castle of Fushimi was on Mitsunari’s way and on the 27th of August he besieged it.
The 2,000-strong garrison resisted Mitsunari's 40,000 for 10 days.
The Western Army lost 3,000 men but, more importantly, precious time.
After a slow march, Mitsunari and his men arrived at Ogaki in October.
Terumoto began his advance with 30,000 warriors.
Ieyasu and his men arrived in Akasaka on October 20th,
where he established a camp on a small hill called Okayama.
Both sides had around 80,000 warriors.
Mitsunari made the decision to order a general withdrawal towards Sekigahara—
a place where, according to him, they would have a tactical advantage.
The battle took place at Sekigahara on the 21st of October, 1600.
At 4:30 in the morning, the Army of the West were formed up and in battle position.
Ieyasu ordered his army to form up, too.
A thick fog covered the valley,
so visibility was reduced to a few meters and the troops had difficulty identifying the enemy.
At 8:00 in the morning, the fog dispersed.
And after a few moments, confrontation began.
It is not entirely clear on which side the attack started,
but it seems that a small cavalry group of the Eastern Army attacked first.
Their initial attack was so surprising and violent that they reached the lines of the Shimazu clan.
On the other side of the battlefield,
the attack of Kyogoku Takemoto threatened the position of Otani Yoshitsugu, but this attack was contained.
Nearly 20,000 men from the Eastern Army directly charged against Mitsunari’s position on the left flank.
An improvised defensive ring was created to prevent them from reaching Mitsunari
and this attack was stopped by the flanking forces in the area.
Ieyasu sent even more troops into the area,
but Mitsunari’s soldiers managed to withstand these attacks,
supported by the troops from the center.
As Mitsunari’s center was somewhat weakened,
a group of arquebusiers were brought forward and managed to fire a volley.
But the leaders of the Western Army moved their own gunpowder units into the area
and Ieyasu’s arquebusiers were pushed back.
Mitsunari’s arquebusiers attempted to counter-attack,
but their flanks were threatened and they retreated back to their positions.
The battle was now in balance.
However, more troops of the Eastern Army started joining the fight along the front.
Seeing this, Mitsunari ordered the Shimazu to join the battle from the right flank, but they defied the order.
Further to the right, Kobayakawa Hideaki was also ordered to support the center.
Unfortunately for Mitsunari, Hideaki betrayed him and pledged his loyalty to Ieyasu.
Hideaki's troops joined the Eastern Army and together they started rolling up Mitsunari’s center.
The leader of the Western Army attempted to retreat.
He still had an ace in his pocket,
as part of his forces consisting of the troops from the clans Mori, Chosokabe, and Kikkawa
were still unscathed.
As his center and the left flank retreated, the enemy was drawn in
and an attack could have changed the course of the battle.
However, the Kikkawa—who were at the front of this group—refused to attack,
and that didn't allow Mori or Chosokabe to join the battle.
Eventually, the whole group left the battlefield.
Mitsunari’s remaining forces were soon surrounded and massacred.
The Western Army lost up to 40,000 troops
while Ieyasu’s losses were around 5,000.
Most of the Western commanders were either killed in battle or executed later.
Victory at the Battle of Sekigahara allowed Tokugawa Ieyasu to seize control of the country
and establish the Tokugawa Shogunate.
The Warring States period was over
and the new relative peace would last for the next 250 years.
Thank you for watching our first video on Japanese history.
We are looking to expand the geography we cover at all times,
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