Two years after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the regents who ruled for his young son split into two camps: an Eastern Army under Tokugawa Ieyasu and a Western Army gathered by Ishida Mitsunari. They met in fog in the narrow Sekigahara basin, where Mitsunari had drawn his army in an arc on the hills, apparently with the Tokugawa trapped inside it. But several of his allies had already come to terms with Ieyasu. After a hard fight in the centre, Kobayakawa Hideaki led 15,600 men down Mount Matsuo against his own side, four more commanders followed him, and the 30,000 Mōri troops on Mount Nangu never moved. The Western Army collapsed within hours, and the Tokugawa ruled Japan for the next two and a half centuries.
Battle plan · Sengoku period
Battle of Sekigahara
- 21 October 1600
- Sekigahara, Mino
- Decisive Eastern Army victory
The armies
Western Army (Ishida Mitsunari and allies)
Ishida Mitsunari · Ukita Hideie · Ōtani Yoshitsugu · Shimazu Yoshihiro · Konishi Yukinaga
| Unit | Arm | Men |
|---|---|---|
| Ishida MitsunariIshida Mitsunari | Infantry | 6,000 |
| Ishida Mitsunari's headquarters | Commander | — |
| Shima Sakon's vanguardShima Sakon | Infantry | 1,000 |
| Shimazu YoshihiroShimazu Yoshihiro and Toyohisa | Infantry | 1,500 |
| Konishi YukinagaKonishi Yukinaga | Infantry | 4,000 |
| Ukita HideieUkita Hideie | Infantry | 17,000 |
| Ōtani Yoshitsugu, Toda Katsushige and Hiratsuka TamehiroŌtani Yoshitsugu | Infantry | 4,100 |
| Wakisaka, Kutsuki, Ogawa and AkazaWakisaka Yasuharu | Infantry | 4,200 |
| Kobayakawa HideakiKobayakawa Hideaki | Infantry | 15,600 |
| Mōri Hidemoto and Kikkawa HiroieMōri Hidemoto | Infantry | 18,000 |
| Chōsokabe Morichika, Ankokuji Ekei and Natsuka MasaieChōsokabe Morichika | Infantry | 9,000 |
| In this plan | 80,400 |
Eastern Army (Tokugawa Ieyasu and allies)
Tokugawa Ieyasu · Ii Naomasa · Fukushima Masanori · Kuroda Nagamasa · Honda Tadakatsu
| Unit | Arm | Men |
|---|---|---|
| Kuroda NagamasaKuroda Nagamasa | Infantry | 5,400 |
| Hosokawa TadaokiHosokawa Tadaoki | Infantry | 5,000 |
| Katō Yoshiaki, Tsutsui Sadatsugu and Tanaka Yoshimasa | Infantry | 8,800 |
| Ii Naomasa and Matsudaira TadayoshiIi Naomasa | Infantry | 6,600 |
| Fukushima MasanoriFukushima Masanori | Infantry | 6,000 |
| Tōdō Takatora and Kyōgoku TakatomoTōdō Takatora | Infantry | 5,500 |
| Honda Tadakatsu and Oda NagamasuHonda Tadakatsu | Cavalry | 1,000 |
| Tokugawa Ieyasu's main bodyTokugawa Ieyasu | Infantry | 30,000 |
| Tokugawa Ieyasu's headquarters | Commander | — |
| Ikeda Terumasa, Asano Yoshinaga and Yamauchi Kazutoyo | Infantry | 14,000 |
| In this plan | 82,300 |
What the sources report
| Western Army | Eastern Army | |
|---|---|---|
| Strength, this plan | 81,890 (81,890–120,000)120,000 initially, 81,890 at the battle | 88,888 (75,000–88,888)75,000 initially, 88,888 at the battle |
| Losses, this plan | 32,000 (8,000–35,270)Chronicles give 8,000 to 35,270 killed; about 23,000 men changed sides | 8,000 (4,000–10,000) |
| Strength, Wikipedia | 120,000 initially,81,890 by the time of battle | 75,000 initially,88,888 by the time of battle |
| Casualties, Wikipedia | Sekigahara Gunki Taisei: 8,000–32,000 killedTokugawa Jikki; The Chronicles of Toshogu Shrine: 35,270 killedChoyakyubun Hokou:30,000-35,270 (heads collected by the Eastern army after the battle)~23,000 defected | Sekigahara Gunki Taisei: 4,000–10,000 killedTokugawa Jikki; The Chronicles of Toshogu Shrine: 8,000 killed |
Infobox figures from “Battle of Sekigahara” on Wikipedia (revision 1380043536), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Plans and pictures
PlanBattaglia di Sekigahara posizioni inizialiMoroboshi · CC BY-SA 3.0Commons ↗
PlanSite of Matsudaira Tadayoshi and Ii Naomasa's Positions立花左近 · CC BY-SA 3.0Commons ↗
PictureBattle of Sekigahara MonumentKotaro - User: (WT-shared) 耕太郎 at wts wikivoyage · CC BY-SA 4.0Commons ↗
PictureBattle of Sekigahara folding screenUnknown authorUnknown author · Public domainCommons ↗.jpg)
PictureSekigahara Kassen Byōbu-zu (Gifu History Museum)Collection of The City of Gifu Museum of History · Public domainCommons ↗![Sekigahara Kassen Byōbu (『関ヶ原合戦屏風』), Japanese screen depicting the Battle of Sekigahara (関ヶ原の戦い). This 1854 replica recreates the original Hikone-jō Bon Sekigahara Kassen Byōbu (彦根城本『関ヶ原合戦屏風』[1]) by Sadanobu Kanō (狩野貞信) from the 1620s and was a treasure of the Lord Ii of Hikone (彦根藩井伊家) thereinafter. However, it is not a faithful rendition of the original, with some noticeable omissions and design](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sekigaharascreen.jpg)
PictureSekigaharascreenUser LordAmeth on en.wikipediaCollection of The Town of Sekigahara Archive of History and Cultural Anthropology · Public domainCommons ↗Notes
On this reconstruction
Strengths are those usually given for each commander's contingent and are uncertain. The timing is disputed: the Edo-period account has the battle start about 08:00 and last into the afternoon, with Kobayakawa hesitating until noon, while recent research suggests it began about 10:00 and was over in two hours, and that Kobayakawa may have turned at the outset. This plan follows the traditional sequence without fixing the hours. The hours are approximate, from the order of events in the accounts.
Sources
- Ōta Gyūichi, Shinchō Kōki and battle notes · public domainEyewitness: "friends and foes are pushing each other".
- Tokugawa Ieyasu, Letter to Date Masamune, 15th day of the 9th month, Keichō 5 · public domainDates the victory to the day of the battle.
- Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Sekigahara · CC-BY-SA-4.0Contingents, defections and sequence as summarised in the article.
Facts gathered from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikimedia Commons (licence per file); the plan and its text are timeastra’s own.