Narrow Road To The Deep North 8

The climactic end of the Warring States came at the decisive Battle of Sekigahara, on October 21, 1600. After Oda Nobunaga killed himself, during his retainer’s attempted assassination in 1573, his army came under control of his subordinate, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Since the Toyotomi clan was descended from peasant stock, neither Hideyoshi nor his heirs would be recognized or accepted as shogun. Even though Hideyoshi would unify Japan, his failed invasions of Korea significantly weakened the clan's power. After Hideyoshi’s death in the second incursion, the power struggle for the right to rule the land fractured into two factions, a Western Army of 120,000 troops led by Ishida Mitsunari, and a 75,000-strong Eastern Army, under the command of Tokugawa Ieyasu.   
Because Ishida could not risk leaving a force that could attack his rear, he was delayed, forced to march on Fushimi, a fortress halfway between Osaka and Kyoto, controlled by Tokugawa’s ally Torii Mototada. The ten days he took to capture it cost him Tokugawa’s seizure of Gifu Castle, and an obligatory retreat southward in the rain. His gunpowder wet, and troops tired from a day’s march, Ishida and his forces stopped at Sekigahara, a small village sitting astride a central Honshu crossroads, under the heights of three mountains. He had hoped to meet Ieyasu somewhere further east but, at the same time, the high ground flanked by two streams favored Mitsunari. Western army troops occupied the heights around Mount Nangu and Mount Matsuo, with Ishida himself positioned northwest of Sekigahara, flanked by Mount Sasao. On October 20, 1600, Tokugawa, having experienced considerably better weather, learned of Ishida’s defensive position at Sekigahara. At dawn of the next day, Tokugawa’s advanced guard stumbled into Ishida’s army. Neither side initially saw each other due to the dense fog caused by the earlier rain. Both sides panicked and withdrew, but both sides were now aware of where everyone was. Around 8 am, wind blew away the fog, last-minute orders issued and the battle engaged. The ground was still muddy from the previous day's rain, so the conflict devolved into something more primal.  
Ieyasu;s army had deployed along the Nakasendō, a more northern part of which Robyn and I would walk in a few days time. His vanguard faced Mitsunari, seemingly exposed to flank attack by the Western troops on Mount Matsuo. But Ieyasu knew these men were under the command of Kobayakawa Hideaki, who had already decided to betray his Ishada and his compatriots. The Western Army’s initial upper hand was turned, with some direct fire encouragement from Ieyasu’s arquebuses, by Hideaki’s defection. Seeing this, four other Western Army generals, switched sides, and turned the tide of battle into an Eastern Army victory. The largest pivotal conflict in Japanese history had lasted only six hours. 
After Ieyasu's final triumph at the siege of Osaka in 1615, Japan settled into several centuries of Sakoku peace, under his Tokugawa Shogunate. A year later, the dying Ieyasu made known his final wish for his successors to build a small shrine in Nikkō and enshrine me as the God. I will be the guardian of peace keeping in Japan. On his deathbed he was deified as Toshogu, Sun God of the East. Up through the magnificent surrounding forest of over 13,000 cedars, Robyn and I headed towards his mausoleum.



                        What would you do if the bird does not sing? 
                        Oda Nobunaga said ‘Kill it if it does not sing.’ 
                        Toyotomi Hideyoshi said ‘Make it want to sing.’ 
                        Tokugawa Ieyasu said ‘Wait until it sings.’
                                        Poem every Japanese schoolchild learns