Today in 1600 began the Battle of Sekihara, one of the most important battles in Japanese history, a battle which paved the way for Tokugawa Ieyasu to become Shogun and de facto ruler of Japan.
Ieyasu had been positioning himself to take power for most of his life. Finally when Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the general who had completed Nobunaga's conquest of Japan, died in 1598, Ieyasu saw his chance.
Before his death, Hideyoshi had set up a council, called the Council of Five Elders, to ensure his son would take power when he came of age. This council was carefully chosen, made up of powerful daimyō and friends to the Toyotomi family. Hideyoshi never trusted Ieyasu and hoped the council could prevent him from taking absolute control. But, as the oldest, highest of rank and reputation, and the one with the most influence, Ieyasu dominated this council despite the precautions, especially after Maeda Toshiie, one of the other Elders, died. In addition to the council, Hideyoshi had also set up a group of five commissioners who were tasked with running the government. These two groups soon fell into two factions as they struggled against each other and this led to the Battle of Sekigahara.
On the Eastern side were Ieyasu and his supporters and on the Western side was Ishida Mitsunari, who had been one of the five commissioners, and other Toyotomi loyalists. Each commanded forces of roughly 80,000-90,000. Both sides seemed evenly matched and no one could get the upper hand at first. But Ieyasu had an ace up his sleeve.
One of the Daimyō on the Western side, Kabayakawa Hideaki, had been strongly courted by Ieyasu and had promised to betray Mitsunari after the battle started. Once the battle began, however, Kabayakawa seemed frozen by indecision and refused to join the battle on either side. Ieyasu finally ordered his arquebuses to fire at Kabayakawa's position to force him to choose. This worked and Kabayakawa joined the battle as a member of the Eastern force. This betrayal gave Ieyasu the edge in battle and after that it was only a matter of time. Three years later, in 1603, Ieyasu would be named shogun and his family would rule Japan until 1868.
Legend has it that famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi was present at the battle, but there is no evidence for this being true. If you are a fan of the James Clavell novel Shogun, you may be interested to hear that cannons from William Adam's ship were used by Tokugawa forces during the battle. Historians doubt Adams himself was present at the battle, but no one knows for sure.
Today is butsumetsu 仏滅, one of the rokuyō, the Buddhist horoscope. Oh no! This is the unluckiest day of the rokuyo, when bad luck is said to follow us around all day. Might want to just stay in bed today!
(Read more about the rokuyō here)
On the old calendar, today would have been the twenty eight day of the ninth month. It is the third microseason of Kanro (寒露), called Crickets are chirping (蟋蟀在戸).
This is when the bell crickets are said to be at their best singing. The bell crickets have been much beloved in Japan since ancient times and are still eagerly awaited. We are actually near the end of this microseason, though, and they already seem to be disappearing this year, at least in my area.
Here's a haiku from Shiki:
蜘殺すあとの淋しき夜寒哉
kumo korosu ato no sabishiki yosamu kana
after killing a spider
overcome by loneliness—
the chill of night
Because he himself was dying of TB, Shiki may have found extra horror in death that he caused. Often we act on impulse, but then when our brain catches up to our actions we feel regret for what we did.
yosamu, "The chill of night", is a season word for late autumn.
Have a good day everyone!
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| David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. |
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