Down the Rabbit Hole: Battle of Sekigahara

To go down this rabbit hole🕳️ 🐇, I am going to elaborate on Tokugawa Ieyasu’s crazy strict control and intimidating tactics that gained him power during a time of political instability in Japan. He was pretty intense and a tactic of his was utilized through The Battle of Sekigahara on October 21, 1600, where trained musketeers used firearms in a strategically lined formation one after the other. This battle was significant in the fact that he was able to distinguish his power as the new shogun that would unify Japan. His need for absolute power consumed him and he used powerful individuals with a strong military background, generals (like li Naomasa), and allying with notable families: Kato, Hosokawa, and Kuroda. Along with these fierce forces, Ieyasu created an “Army of the East”, with support from his Matsudaira family and a network of spies. This gave him the advantage to attack Ishida’s defenses, and as soon as Ishida found this out he retreated, which ironically was exactly what Ieyasu expected. Despite the rain all through the night, after it cleared up, he used a vanguard of musketeers that crushed the Western’s defensive line at 8 am and then at noon The Easterners were going to attack, but because of his spies, they formed an alliance with the Kobayakawa family and defeated the East. As an act of true integrity towards this battle, Otani (the commander of the South for the Westerners), split his stomach open in “the ritual manner”. Now that the Southern force was down, only Shimazu, the general, was left and he charged through the center of the Easterners forces by confusing Ieyasu by changing helmets and leading 200 troops to attack. Even so, they were still defeated (Shimazu and 80 men escaped), and Ishida, a commander, and leaders of the Westerners were captured. After this gruesome battle, Tokugawa Ieyasu became a shogun.