Battle of Sekigahara
Tokugawa Ieyasu’s Eastern Army wins the Battle of Sekigahara
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗Tens of thousands of Western soldiers never attacked. Asked repeatedly why the Mōri were not advancing, Kikkawa Hiroie reportedly answered that his men were eating.
21 October 1600: blocking the Nakasendō
After Ishida Mitsunari withdrew from Ōgaki Castle, his Western Army formed a defensive line around Sekigahara on 21 October 1600, blocking the Nakasendō route toward Sawayama and Osaka. Tokugawa Ieyasu pursued and confronted it there.
Following a rainy night and a misty morning, Eastern troops attacked the Western line. Accounts identify Ii Naomasa as initiating the action ahead of Fukushima Masanori, who had been designated to attack first.
Decided by who did not fight
Large Western contingents on Mount Nangū remained inactive because Kikkawa Hiroie, secretly aligned with Ieyasu, blocked the Mōri forces behind him from entering the battle.
Kobayakawa Hideaki's force of about 15,600 descended Mount Matsuo and attacked its nominal ally Ōtani Yoshitsugu. The resulting attack from two directions broke the Western line; Ukita Hideie, Konishi Yukinaga and Mitsunari fled, and Ieyasu's army won within hours.
No contemporary account tells the whole battle
Nippon.com emphasises that no detailed contemporary letters or diaries narrate the battle as a whole, so exact timings and battlefield anecdotes require caution. One NPS reconstruction gives an opening around 7:30 a.m.; other accounts read a document as placing it near 10:00.
Mitsunari directed Western operations, but the coalition's nominal commander, Mōri Terumoto, stayed at Osaka Castle throughout.
The battle did not itself create the Tokugawa shogunate: Ieyasu received the shogunal title in 1603, and the Toyotomi house survived at Osaka until the campaigns of 1614–1615.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources 2 audit passes, 1 issue open
How this was checked
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What the sources leave uncertain
- The date corresponds to the fifteenth day of the ninth month of Keichō 5, conventionally converted to 21 October 1600.
- Nippon.com emphasizes that no detailed contemporary letters or diaries narrate the battle as a whole; most coherent accounts were written later. Exact timings, speeches and battlefield anecdotes therefore require caution.
- The opening time is not settled. One NPS reconstruction gives about 7:30 a.m.; other accounts cite a document interpreted as placing the start near 10:00 a.m.
- Whether Ieyasu’s matchlock volley caused Kobayakawa to defect is debated. A newer theory holds that Kobayakawa fought for Ieyasu from the beginning.