At last, the Sengoku Jidai nears its close,
but not without one final grand chapter.
The year is 1598,
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the second great unifier of Japan,
has just died.
Leaving a counsel of five regents to guard his young son
until he becomes of age to rule.
By far, the greatest of these regents, is Tokugawa Ieyasu.
His wealth is nearly that of the other regents combined.
Hideyoshi, before his death, set in place a number of edicts
to try and keep Japan from descending back into chaos,
and to ensure the survival of his 5 year old son - Hideyori.
But loyalties are deeply divided,
and suspicions starts to split the country
almost as soon as he's gone.
Some daimyō are still pretty bitter
over the failed Korean campaign
initiated by Hideyoshi.
And so, quietly, where few can hear,
they whisper their support for the idea of a Japan ruled by a Tokugawa,
rather than by the son of this peasant who cost them so much.
Others feared the Tokugawa's growing power.
If he's not stopped soon, he may well become unstoppable.
Still, others see the instability of having a minor as the successor to the Shogunate
as a chance for advancement.
Mightn't it be possible at this eleventh hour
for them to swoop in, and somehow take the grand prize:
All of Japan?
One of those in this latter category, was a man named
Ishida Mitsunari.
Ishida was a courtier, and not a warrior.
He had served Hideyoshi as an administrator,
reporting to him on the state of the Korean campaign,
and was famously skilled at finance.
As Ieyasu continue to consolidate his power,
often ignoring Hideyoshi's previsions against
strategic marriages and hostage exchange,
Ishida Mitsunari began to plot against him.
He planned to have Tokugawa assassinated,
and came up with the perfect scheme.
He would make it seem like the Maeda,
one of the other powerful clans on the counsel of regents,
was in on the plot.
So that even his assassination plan was discovered,
the Maeda would be implicated, and forced onto his side.
Unfortunately, his plan backfired.
Tokugawa had used his wealth wisely,
and had many people at all levels of society in his debt.
He not only found out about the plot,
and the fact that the Maeda were falsely implicated,
but also had a trusty Maeda retainer inform the head of the Maeda clan
about exactly what was going on.
As one of his final acts, the aging Maeda clan leader -
Maeda Toshiie,
travel to see Tokugawa personally to pledge his loyalty.
Shortly thereafter, Maeda Toshiie died,
and at his funeral, a number of Tokugawa generals planned to have Ishida killed.
But Ishida fled to Ieyasu himself,
and begged for mercy.
Strangely enough, Tokugawa granted it.
Probably deciding that it was better to have an enemy you knew, rather than one that you didn't.
Besides, if he had Ishida killed now,
Some other force would certainly arise to oppose Tokugawa in the Sengoku Japan.
After being released though, Ishida continued his scheming.
He began to gather as many allies as he could,
knowing that a final conflict with Tokugawa was inevitable.
In 1600, that conflict began.
Uesugi Kagekatsu,
Uesugi Kenshin's heir,
came storming in to Tokugawa land from the northeast,
while Ishida started to move his forces up from the west.
But Tokugawa had allies of his own.
In the last calm days before the war,
Tokugawa had made a visit to a lifelong friend,
one Torii Mototada,
a man he had known since they both served as hostages to the Imagawa
way back at the beginning of our tale.
They sat and drank sake, and discussed the coming war.
Tokugawa mentioned that the castle Mototada held
was likely going to be one of the first points hit by the enemy,
as it stood between them and Kyoto.
Mototada acknowledged this,
and said that he understood it would be the last time they drank together.
They both knew that Mototada and his garrison couldn't possibly hold out.
Mototada did not asked to leave or for reinforcements.
Instead, he said he'd sell his life dearly,
and that he did.
When the attack finally came, his 2,000 men held out for 10 days
against the onslaught of 40,000 Ishida troops.
The castle itself wasn't breached until only 10 of Mototada's men remained.
The entire garrison died there,
but they took a heavy toll on the anti-Tokugawa forces.
And the 10 days they held fast against the Ishida contingent of the army,
significantly delayed their march to Kyoto,
which would prove crucial to Tokugawa in the end.
Thanks to Mototada's sacrifice,
forces loyal to the Tokugawa had time to rally,
and throw back the Uesugi,
leaving Ishida to face Ieyasu alone.
The decisive conflict came at a place called Sekigahara,
a river valley surrounded by hills.
The forces were nearly evenly matched,
at roughly 80,000 men each.
The Ishida had taken a strong defensive position on the west side of the valley,
using the streams and hills to secure their line.
The ground was a mire from the driving rains of the night before,
and a thick fog shrouded the battlefield.
But as the sun rose on October 21st,
16:00, and the fog began to clear,
the armies engaged.
It was a grinding fight, neither side breaking,
neither side loosing ground, or exposing a flank.
Slowly though, as the sun approached its zenith,
the Tokugawa forces on the south began to give way.
Things weren't going perfectly for Ishida either though.
Some of his forces weren't responding to his commands,
and he gotten some push-back on a few of his orders for pretty minor reasons.
But the fight was still going his way,
So at last, he decided to signal a full charge
into the now exposed southern flank of the Tokugawa.
He shot a flaming arrow into the air to signal the all-out assault.
But something odd happened.
The 16,000 men commanded by one Kobayakawa Hideaki,
didn't move.
From the outset of the battle, those troops has just sat there,
atop a hill of the very southern end of the Ishada line.
Commanders from both sides has watched them nervously the entire time,
with their flags planted, and their men lined up on the southern rise...
perfectly still.
Frantic Ishida messengers has been sent up there all day, demanding that they move,
or at least trying to understand what was going on and why they weren't moving,
but the messengers were simply turned away.
Then, at noon, to the sound of a thundering volley
from the Tokugawa arquebusiers,
the Kobayakawa troops charged down the hill,
and slammed into the southern end...
of the Ishida line.
Let me give you a little back story here.
The Kobayakawa were a bit of a wild card in this battle from the beginning,
and no one on either side knew for sure what they would do.
Ishida had promised great rewards to Kobayakawa Hideyaki,
and brought him on his side.
Heck, Kobayakawa had already fought for him in the previous siege.
But, Kobayakawa had promised his loyalties to the Tokugawa as well.
You see, during the Korean campaign years ago,
Ishida had accused Kobayakawa of recklessness,
and Hideyoshi had taken away much of Kobayakawa's lands based on that charge,
only to have them later restored when Tokugawa intervened.
Turns out that Kobayakawa was still pretty pissed about that.
And in the end, his seething resentment of Ishida
won out over his desire for a grand reward.
And so, as his forces came barreling in to the Ishida line,
everyone knew what this meant...
this defection was the end.
It triggered defection from the other wavering commanders,
and collapsed the Ishida southern flank.
In a few hours, there was nothing left of the Ishida forces.
The last great army between Tokugawa, and complete control of Japan, was shattered and broken.
Their commanders dead or being hunted down before the year's end.
With this, Tokugawa started redistributing land throughout Japan,
granting wealth to those who'd been loyal to him, and disempowering those who'd opposed him.
In 1603, the emperor granted him the title of Shogun,
and he ruled happily as Shogun...
for about 2 more years.
Yep, that's right. After all that,
he was officially Shogun for 2 years.
But unlike everybody else, this wasn't because he died or lost a battle,
it was because he retired.
and this may be one of the most important things Tokugawa ever does.
He continue to rule, safe in his home province for the rest of his days,
but officially, he passed the title of Shogun to one of his adult sons:
Tokugawa Hidetada,
and gave him a fair amount of responsibility
and managing the bureaucratic organization of the Shogunate.
Because Hidetada was an adult who already had a strong military record,
and because he ruled in name, and even in part, in fact,
for over a decade before Ieyasu died,
no one opposed his continue rule when Ieyasu passed.
There would be no upheavals, like those that followed the death of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi.
By retiring early, Ieyasu saw to that.
This left only one piece that could possibly disrupt the succession of Tokugawas
as undisputed rulers of Japan,
and that was Hideyoshi's son - Hideyori.
So every year, Tokugawa tried to lure him out of his stronghold at Osaka castle,
and every year, he refused.
Until, at last, Tokugawa just attacked him on the flimsiest of pretenses:
An inscription that he put on a bell, which if you really stretch its interpretation,
could be consider an insult to the Tokugawa...
...kind of.
The siege of Osaka began in November of 1614,
and by the late spring of 1615, the castle had fallen,
and with it, the only Toyotomi heir.
It was a year later, almost to the day, that Tokugawa Ieyasu died,
and the country past peacefully into the hands of his son, Tokugawa Hidetada.
And, like that, the period of The Warring States,
The Sengoku Jidai came to an end.
Hey! Welcome to the end of the video.
We've decided to try doing a little something extra at the end of these things,
where we answer one history questions submitted by one of our Patreon supporters.
I think this would be fun!
Okey! Here we go!
Rising Zan asks...
Who is your favorite historical American president?
Well, if your asking for favorite,
I'd have to go with Teddy Roosevelt.
You got to love somebody who vastly expanded the national park system,
founded and ran for a political party called "The Bull Moose Party",
assembled the Rough Riders and charged up San Juan Hill,
kept the country out of any wars,
and won a Nobel Peace Prize, while having the motto:
"Speak softly and carry a big stick."
He broke up monopolies, he fought for the rights of everybody,
and he got the Teddy Bear named after him.
The guy's life reads more like a novel than a biography,
and he was passionate about everything he did.
You got to admire that!
Thanks for the question, Mr. Zan.
We'll see you guys next time!