Battle of Sekigahara

The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: 関ヶ原の戦い; Kyūjitai: 關ヶ原の戰い, Sekigahara no Tatakai) was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Tokugawa Ieyasu took three more years to consolidate his position of power over the Toyotomi clan and the daimyo, but Sekigahara is widely considered to be the unofficial beginning of the Tokugawa bakufu, the last shogunate to control Japan. Japan had a long period of peace after the battle.

Background

Oda Nobunaga had slowly consolidated control over much of Japan and was in control of the shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki. Ashikaga tried to escape this predicament in 1573 by attacking Oda, but failed and was exiled, thus ending his shogunate. Nobunaga ruled unopposed until he was betrayed by his own retainer Akechi Mitsuhide in 1582. While under attack in Kyoto, Nobunaga committed suicide by seppuku. Toyotomi Hideyoshi quickly avenged his master Nobunaga and consolidated control over Japan. Hideyoshi had risen from humble roots to become the ruler of Japan. His father was an ashigaru (foot-soldier). The death of Hideyoshi created a power vacuum in Japan, which ultimately was resolved by the outcome at Sekigahara.

Battle (disambiguation)

Generally, a battle is a combat in warfare between two or more parties.

Battle or battles may also refer to:

Name

Fictional characters

In military

Places

In music

Battle

Generally, a battle "is a conceptual component in the hierarchy of combat in warfare between two or more armed forces, or combatants. A war sometimes consists of many battles. Battles generally are well defined in duration, area, and force commitment.

Wars and military campaigns are guided by strategy, whereas battles take place on a level of planning and execution known as operational mobility. German strategist Carl von Clausewitz stated that "the employment of battles ... to achieve the object of war" was the essence of strategy.

Etymology

The definition of a battle cannot be arrived at solely through the names of historical battles, many of which are misnomers. The word battle is a loanword in English from the Old French bataille, first attested in 1297, from Late Latin battualia, meaning "exercise of soldiers and gladiators in fighting and fencing", from Late Latin (taken from Germanic) battuere "beat", from which the English word battery is also derived via Middle English batri, and comes from the staged battles in the Colosseum in Rome that may have numbered 10,000 individuals.

Sengoku period

The Sengoku period (戦国時代, Sengoku jidai, c. 1467 – c. 1603) is a period in Japanese history marked by social upheaval, political intrigue and near-constant military conflict Japanese historians named after the otherwise unrelated Warring States period in China. It came to an end when all political power was unified under the Tokugawa shogunate.

During this period, although the Emperor of Japan was officially the ruler of his nation and every lord swore loyalty to him, he was largely a marginalised, ceremonial, and religious figure who delegated power to the Shogun, a noble who was roughly equivalent to a Generalissimo. In the years preceding this era the Shogunate gradually lost influence and control over the daimyo (local lords). Although the Ashikaga shogunate had retained the structure of the Kamakura shogunate and instituted a warrior government based on the same social economic rights and obligations established by the Hōjō with the Jōei Code in 1232, it failed to win the loyalty of many daimyo, especially those whose domains were far from the capital, Heian-kyō. Many of these Lords began to fight uncontrollably with each other for control over land and influence over the shogunate. As trade with China grew, the economy developed, and the use of money became widespread as markets and commercial cities appeared. This, combined with developments in agriculture and small-scale trading, led to the desire for greater local autonomy throughout all levels of the social hierarchy. As early as the beginning of the 15th century, the suffering caused by earthquakes and famines often served to trigger armed uprisings by farmers weary of debt and taxes.