Sekigahara 1600 by Anthony Bryant

Author:Anthony Bryant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sekigahara 1600: The Final Struggle for Power
ISBN: 9781472800725
Publisher: Osprey Publishing

Ogaki Castle was the base from which Ishida launched his attack on Sekigahara. After Sekigahara, the castle would be rebuilt, and see an astonishing number of lords in a short time. Ieyasu’s son held it briefly, as did the Ishikawa, Hisamatsu (cousins to Ieyasu), Okabe, Hisamatsu (again) and finally the Toda. The latter would hold the castle until the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868. This modern reproduction replaces the original, which was destroyed by bombing in 1945.

It was at this point that old Shimazu Yoshihiro suggested a full-scale night-time assault on the Tokugawa position. He had observed them and their camp, noting that many seemed near exhaustion, and had been walking and eating and sleeping in their armour for two weeks. A night assault would have the advantage of surprise, as well. Ukita Hideie, the second-in-command, supported Yoshihiro’s idea. It would be certain victory, he insisted.

Shima Sakon, Mitsunari’s strategist, sneered at what he considered the cowardice implied in the idea. ‘Night-time assaults are for weak forces against the strong,’ he said. ‘The numbers favour us. In a pitched battle, we will be the victors.’ Hideie accepted the decision, but Yoshihiro was gravely insulted. Mitsunari would regret that insulting reply.

Mitsunari was faced with having to ‘abandon’ Ogaki to save Sawayama; there was no option. He compared his choice with risking the head to save an arm. But where to go?

Then he had a brilliant idea. One of the last of his Western allies to arrive had been Kobayakawa Hideaki, who had taken up position in a little village in a valley, right on the Nakasendô, where a spur from the Tôkaidô joins it, near another spur rounding Mount Ibuki going up to the third major road, the Hokkoku Kaidô (Northern Road), through Honshu. He’d have to run south around Mount Nangû to get there, but he could intercept Ieyasu’s western push on the Nakasendô. Sekigahara was the perfect site.

That evening, about 7.00 pm on 20 October, while Ieyasu was settling down to relax, Mitsunari ordered a general withdrawal to the valley, some 12 miles behind Ogaki Castle. Leaving just 7500 men to garrison Ogaki, they set out south and west. The rain was just beginning to fall.

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