Battle of Sekigahara

Battle of Sekigahara
Part of the Sengoku period
Edo-period screen depicting the battle
Date October 21, 1600 Location Sekigahara, Mino Province, present-day Gifu Prefecture, Japan 35°22′14″N 136°27′42″E / 35.3705°N 136.4616°E / 35.3705; 136.4616 Result Eastern army victory Beginning of Tokugawa shogunate Territorial changes Tokugawa clan gains nominal control of all Japan
Belligerents
Western Army: Forces loyal to Ishida Mitsunari, many clans from Western Japan	Eastern Army: Forces loyal to Tokugawa Ieyasu, clans of Eastern Japan
Commanders and leaders
Ishida Mitsunari  Ukita Hideie Ōtani Yoshitsugu † Shima Sakon † Chōsokabe Morichika Gamō Yorisato † Shimazu Yoshihiro Shimazu Toyohisa † Akashi Takenori Konishi Yukinaga  Toda Katsushige † Ankokuji Ekei  Mōri Hidemoto Natsuka Masaie † Hiratsuka Tamehiro † Defected: Kobayakawa Hideaki Kikkawa Hiroie Wakisaka Yasuharu Kutsuki Mototsuna Akaza Naoyasu Ogawa Suketada	Tokugawa Ieyasu Fukushima Masanori Tōdō Takatora Hosokawa Tadaoki Ikeda Terumasa Oda Urakusai Ii Naomasa Matsudaira Tadayoshi Kuroda Nagamasa Takenaka Shigekado Honda Tadakatsu Furuta Shigekatsu Katō Yoshiaki Terazawa Hirotaka Ikoma Kazumasa Tsutsui Sadatsugu Horio Tadauji Kanamori Nagachika Asano Yoshinaga Yamauchi Katsutoyo Kyōgoku Takatomo
Strength
120,000 initially,[1] 81,890 by the time of battle[2]	75,000 initially,[1] 88,888 by the time of battle[2]
Casualties and losses
8,000–32,000[3] killed ~23,000 defected	4,000–10,000[4] killed
class=notpageimage| Location within Gifu Prefecture Show map of Gifu Prefecture Battle of Sekigahara (Japan) Show map of Japan

The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: 関ヶ原の戦い; Kyūjitai: 關ヶ原の戰い, Hepburn romanization: Sekigahara no Tatakai) was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, Japan, at the end of the Sengoku period. This battle was fought by the forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu against a coalition of Toyotomi loyalist clans under Ishida Mitsunari, several of which defected before or during the battle, leading to a Tokugawa victory. The Battle of Sekigahara was the largest battle of Japanese feudal history and is often regarded as the most important. Mitsunari's defeat led to the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Tokugawa Ieyasu took three more years to consolidate his position of power over the Toyotomi clan and the various daimyō, but the Battle of Sekigahara is widely considered to be the unofficial beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan for another two and a half centuries until 1868.^[5]