Lecture 20: 1600 Sekigahara—Samurai Showdown
expended strength to gain a strategic location or deliberately
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in another.x Much of the maneuvering concerned control of two key roads: the
coastal Tokaido road and the inland Nakasendo road. There is a
point at which the main Japanese island of Honshu narrows, and
both roads must squeeze through a slender gap between Lake Biwa
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October 16, 1600.x Sekigahara lies in a constricted valley. Ishida’s forces converged
here on the night of October 15 and deployed on the hillsides and
on bits of high ground, arrayed in a roughly semicircular shape.
Ishida’s plan was to force Tokugawa’s army to cross the swampy
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they would be surrounded on three sides.x ,VKLGDZDVVWDWLRQHGWRZDUGWKHOHIWÀDQNZLWKDERXWPHQ
from there, contingents under various lords stretched south in a
curving line. Near the center was a block of 17,000 troops under the
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stationed at the head of 16,000 of his own men.x Across the valley, Tokugawa positioned himself on a hillside behind
a double line of units totaling around 40,000. He held back his own
30,000 personal retainers in a block beside him as a reserve.x Both armies entered the valley during the night, but a thick mist
obscured their movements so that neither was sure where the other
was. As dawn broke, one of Tokugawa’s lords sprang forward at the
head of 30 of his mounted samurai and launched a charge against
Ukita’s center division. Following his lead, other Tokugawa units
charged straight across the valley and engaged Ishida’s center and
left divisions.