Battle of Sekigahara

The Battle of Sekigahara was a decisive battle on September 15, 1600 (on the ancient Chinese calendar, October 21 on the modern calendar) that cleared the path to the Shogunate for Tokugawa Ieyasu. Though it would take three more years for Tokugawa to consolidate his position of power over the Toyotomi clan and the daimyo, Sekigahara is widely considered to be the unofficial beginning of the Tokugawa bakufu, the last shogunate to control Japan.

Background and pretext

Even though Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified Japan and consolidated his power, his ill-fated invasion of Korea significantly weakened the Toyotomi clan's power as well as the loyalists that continued to serve and support the Toyotomi clan after Hideyoshi's death. The war also worsened the continuous conflict between the army commanders and the bureaucrats under Hideyoshi. The presence of Hideyoshi and his brother, Hidenaga kept the two sides from anything more than quarrelling, but when both of them died, the conflicts exacerbated and developed into open hostilities. Later on, Maeda Toshiie's death all but removed any trace or pretense of friendliness between the two factions.

Related Topics:
Korea - Hidenaga - Maeda Toshiie

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Most notably, Kato Kiyomasa and Fukushima Masanori were publicly critical of the bureaucrats, especially Ishida Mitsunari and Konishi Yukinaga. Tokugawa Ieyasu took advantage of this situation, and recruited them, redirecting the animosity to weaken the Toyotomi clan.

Related Topics:
Kato Kiyomasa - Fukushima Masanori - Ishida Mitsunari - Konishi Yukinaga

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