Japan Trip 2012, Day 9 - Sekigahara

Ask anyone who knows anything about medieval Japanese history for famous battles within that time period, and they'll probably refer you to the Battle of Sekigahara. Cited as the single, most important battle of that era, it unified (or more accurately, nearly unified) Japan under the rule of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who would become shogun three years after his victory. He fought against Ishida Mitsunari on 15 September, 1600. The battle started at around 8:00, and by 14:30, Tokugawa was certain he would be victorious.

Pictures: http://caelk.shutterfly.com/pictures/480

It's not too hard to figure out how to get to Sekigahara, all you have to do is get on JR and go to Sekigahara Station. Fair warning though: Sekigahara Station (and the entirety of the town) does not have coin lockers, so if you're coming from Maibara Station you might want to stash your stuff there before you arrive. When you get there, there's a small info kiosk, but it's mostly there to guide you to the main tourist headquarters/museum, the Sekigahara Town History and Folklore Museum (関ヶ原町歴史民俗資料館), due northwest from the station. When you exit, follow the road right and cross over the train tracks on the nearest bridge, then walk straight along the road northward. The museum will be on the left.

Admission into the museum is 350 yen, dirt cheap, and they'll be happy to hold your bags for you if you brought them along. The museum isn't really that grand, it's more to get people familiarized with the famous battle. It's still good for a bit of fact-checking, and the people at the counter will also recommend a route for you to take based on what you want to see. They also have a bunch of bicycles for rent: 500 yen for 4 hours or 1000 yen for the entire day. I wanted to get around a bunch of sites that day, so I took one out along with my earphones and starting peddling northward.

Within a few minutes, I came across this field. This was where the battle was decided - just before Ishida Mitsunari's camp as the Eastern Army closed in on him. Forces clashed at this spot for around an hour, and by 15:00, the battle turned into a full scale rout, with Ieyasu's Eastern Army seeking to sweep the remainder of Ishida's forces under the rug.

Mitsunari's camp lay beyond this, up a steep hill overlooking the battlefield. If you think this was a good position to be in, I dare say you'd be right. The thing about Ishida Mitsunari is that when he came into the battle, he had everything going for him. Superior position, superior placement, superior manpower... if all went as planned, Ishida should have won, and decisively at that.

But the legend of the faithful-unto-death samurai is really nothing more than that. Unless some sort of blood tie was there to unite them, samurai lords would frequently take the sides of whoever they felt benefited their cause more. Such was the case with a young general, Kobayakawa Hideaki, who set up camp around this general area. He was merely 19 years old on the day of the battle, and was positioned perfectly to attack Tokugawa's left flank. However, Tokugawa had contacted him secretly with an offer of defection, knowing that he harbored ill feelings towards Mitsunari.

During the actual battle though, he was hesitant in his support of the Eastern Army. Angered, irritated, impatient, and most importantly losing, Tokugawa ordered his arquebusiers to fire upon his position to force him to make his decision. Had Kobayakawa chosen to charge against Tokugawa, the battle could have ended in a Western victory. Instead, Tokugawa's message to him was received, and he led a charge against one of the more prominent generals in the Western Army: Ootani Yoshitsugu. Seeing this act of betrayal, the four other generals with Kobayakawa also turned upon Mitsunari. The flank had not only failed, the Eastern Army was bolstered with both numbers and surprise. It was noon. Ootani would be defeated an hour later, and commit suicide on the battlefield.

After having lunch, I continued my descent south where I came across the site of Shimazu Yoshihiro's camp. Shimazu happened to be on the losing side of this engagement, but he had enough heroics in him to impress his enemies. Ironically, what drew him to Tokugawa's eyes was his spectacular charge... away from the Eastern Army. As the battle drew to a close, Shimazu found himself beset by his enemies, and realized it was in his best interests to leave the battle. While he could have turned and fled, he instead did the unthinkable - rallying his troops, he led them straight through enemy lines. Wedging themselves in and pushing their way out, Shimazu's troops burst through the Eastern Army and fled the battlefield out the other side of it. On the way, his arquebusiers, long renowed for their skill with the gun, shot and wounded the famed general Ii Naomasa. This wound would plague Naomasa for the next two years until his death, when it finally caught up to him.

Further south is the site where the battle started. Both sides had stationed at their positions since around 6:00, where they would lay in wait. Fukushima Masanori had been chosen to act as the Eastern Army's vanguard, however the future Lord of Hikone, Ii Naomasa, had other ideas. During the early hours of the morning, Ii led his Red Devils forward through the fields of Sekigahara, and eventually passed in front of his ally Fukushima's position. At around 8:00, his troops hurled a volley of gunfire at Ukita Hideie's Western troops, signaling the start of the battle.

Armies then converged around this area, and the whole of Sekigahara quickly fell into chaos. By around 10:00, the Western Army led by Ishida Mitsunari started to gain the upper hand against the Eastern Army. An hour of intense fighting later, the leader of the Western Army finally decided to close the door shut on his enemies. Mitsunari signaled to all his waiting generals, with a signal fire, to fall upon the Tokugawa at once. His calls were unanswered: Kobayakawa, who would have attacked Tokugawa's left flank, was still pondering his betrayal. As well, Kikkawa Hiroie and Mouri Hidemoto, who were in position to attack Tokugawa from behind, refused to move from their positions. All of these generals had been in contact with Tokugawa behind Mitsunari's back, and their refusal to leave their position blocked the advance of other troops behind them, including Chousokabe Morichika's forces.

Not all areas of interest deal with a general's camp, though. After the battle, the heads of defeated soldiers were buried on two hills. Some time in the Edo Period, two small temples... if I'm reading correctly, one to Haragriva and one to Guanshiyin (two bodhisattva), were erected at the western hill, and the residents of the area performed funeral rites on the war dead. Years later, a shrine was moved from Nagoya to the eastern hill in 1942, accompanied by funeral rites performed for the fallen of Sekigahara. Pictured here is the western hill. The site of Ii Naomasa's camp, where Matsudaira Tadayoshi was also stationed, is just before the eastern hill.

My tour around the city ended with the site of Tokugawa Ieyasu's final camp. He had actually been based quite a ways east of here, but as the battle progressed, he moved his camp to a location just across the museum. From here he commanded his troops in the final stages of the battle, and examined the heads of fallen enemies after the battle was won. The platform and marker that marks the position were constructed by the regional lords, the Takenaka, by order of the shogunate in 1841.

As the battle drew to a close, the Western forces were forced into retreat, though they had been very soundly defeated by that time. Ishida Mitsunari would be captured by Tanaka Yoshimasa, and was later executed at the Rokujou River in Kyoto on 1 October, 1600... reportedly by beheading with a wooden saw. Two of his generals, Ankokuji Ekei and Konishi Yukinaga were also executed in the same place on the same day. Shimazu, as mentioned earlier, made a gutsy charge through his enemies to affect his escape. Ukita Hideie, the first to come under fire, fled to Mount Ibuki. Ukita would later be discovered and be sent into exile for the remainder of his days, but a farmer who met him during his flight showed enough kindness to the exhausted Ukita that he was gifted the general's sword, a masterpiece by the renowned swordsmith Kunitsugu. It is said that Tokugawa Ieyasu himself wished to own the blade.

Also, according to legend, Miyamoto Musashi, the famous twin sword duelist undefeated in over 60 duels, fought on the losing side of this battle under Ukita Hideie. This cannot be verified however, and Musashi would have been 17 at the time of the battle, had he participated in it.

Even saying all this, maybe I should start talking about the urban development around Sekigahara. Those of you expecting to see a huge field undisturbed by time are likely going to be disappointed by the spread of modern life around the area. Riding around Sekigahara, it's obvious the most care was placed at Ishida's camp, and the places where the battle started and ended. However, most of the markers denoting where famous generals set up their camps are surrounded by trees or other things with which to obscure your vision. Some are a small spot on the side of the road. Honda Tadakatsu's camp (pictured here) is literally squeezed between two buildings like it's in someone's backyard. This unfortunately means it's hard to see what the generals saw when on the field as well. Perhaps the places further away from the town proper are better preserved, but I hardly had the time to go out to them.

Sekigahara, if you're staying somewhere close like Hikone, is definitely day-trip material. You can see most everything there is and be back at the station in a few hours. The main attractions are the final battle site, Ishida's camp, the starting battle site, and Tokugawa's camp. With just those, you can probably soak up most of what there is to see, and you could probably be done in two hours on foot. If you're willing to do a little more exploring, you can include the burial mounds like I did. I also threw in Fukushima, Honda, and Ii's camps since they weren't too far off - including lunch I was here for four hours on bike (and I might add, no one was around me for these attractions, so I guess not many people go see them). Most other places you can go are a little out of the way, especially Kobayakawa's camp.

Also, owing to the fact that I arrived at Sekigahara with all my week's luggage on my shoulders without having eaten anything the entire day, I felt too exhausted to walk down a small mountain path leading behind Ishida's camp which I kinda regret. You could spend a little more time going to out of the way places, like Kobayakawa's camp or Ootani's final resting place, but my plans were to be in Kanazawa by the night. At around 16:00, I found myself back at the museum. Returning the bike, I picked up my bags and headed off.

Timeline of the battle:

• 8:00 - Ii Naomasa advances past his ally Fukushima Masanori, and attacks Ukita Hideie. The Battle of Sekigahara begins.
• 10:00 - The Western army starts gaining momentum against the East.
• 11:00 - Ishida signals all his generals waiting orders to attack Tokugawa. While this would have had the Tokugawa Army surrounded on three sides, his orders are completely ignored.
• 12:00 - Tokugawa fires upon Kobayakawa to tell him to choose a side. Kobayakawa, spurred to action, betrays the Western Army and attacks Ootani.
• 13:00 - Betrayed and defeated, Ootani Yoshitsugu commits suicide.
• 14:00 - The battle reaches its climax right before Ishida's main camp.
• 14:30 - Tokugawa's Eastern Army starts to break through Ishida's Western Army.
• 15:00 - The Western Army is routed. Shimazu charges through the Eastern Army and escapes. Ishida attempts to flee, but is captured.
• 16:00 - The majority of the Western Army is either captured or forced from the battlefield. The Battle of Sekigahara ends.

Pictures: http://caelk.shutterfly.com/pictures/480