「関ヶ原勇士軍賞之図」 / ARC浮世絵ポータルデータベース

Birth of the Tokugawa Shogunate

[Battle of Sekigahara]

On August 18, 1598 (Keicho 3), Toyotomi Hideyoshi died at the age of 63 in Fushimi Castle. Since Hideyori, Hideyoshi's young son, could not administer the affairs of state, the management of the Toyotomi government was entrusted to the Council of Five Elders (Tokugawa Ieyasu, Mōri Terumoto, Maeda Toshiie, Ukita Hideie, and Uesugi Kagekatsu) and Five Commissioners (Asano Nagamasa, Ishida Mitsunari, Mashita Nagamori, and Natsuka Masaie, Maeda Gen'i). Gradually, however, Ieyasu took the lead in organizing the affairs of the Toyotomi government.

Ishida Mitsunari, one of the Five Commissioners, was not happy with this situation and formed an anti-Ieyasu faction. The anti-Ieyasu faction, led by Mori Terumoto, one of the Five Elders, raised an army against Ieyasu.

On September 15, 1600 (Keicho 5), about 70,000 soldiers from Ieyasu's side and 80,000 from Mitsunari's side faced each other at Sekigahara (Fuwa-gun, Gifu Prefecture). This was the Battle of Sekigahara. The two sides fought back and forth, but the betrayal of Kingo (Kobayakawa Hideaki) led to a total collapse of the Mitsunari side and an overwhelming victory for Ieyasu.

On February 12, 1603 (Keicho 8), Ieyasu was appointed as Seii Taishogun (“Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force against the Barbarians”) and established the shogunate in Edo. The appointment of Ieyasu as shogun, a traditional office for the warrior class, was an important occasion for him to leave his position as one of the Council of Five Elders in the Toyotomi government and to stand at the top of the ranks of the warrior class.

Diary of Nishinotoin Tokiyoshi (1552-1640), a court noble. The documents contain details of the Battle of Sekigahara, including the betrayal of Kingo (Kobayakawa Hideaki) and the death of Otani Yoshitsugu.

Written by Daidoji Yuzan, a military strategist of the Edo period. According to the document, passwords were used in the battle of Sekigahara. For example, when a person said, "Yama wa yama (A mountain is a mountain)”, the other person would reply "Hata wa hata (A flag is a flag)”. It is also said that soldiers wore sumitorigami (a sign attached to a helmet or a flag by folding both ends of a square piece of paper into the shape of an open fan and attaching one of the corners to the end of a pole) on their shoulders to distinguish friend from foe.

This is a document detailing the political and economic developments in Japan from the Sengoku to the early Edo periods. The author is said to be Matsudaira Tadaaki ra (1583-1644), the lord of the Himeji domain in the Harima province and a grandson of Ieyasu. On March 25, 1603 (Keicho 8), Ieyasu visited the imperial court and formed a grand procession from Nijo Castle to express his gratitude for being appointed shogun. This document describes the procession at that time.

[Ieyasu's Domestic Administration and Foreign Diplomacy]

In 1603 (Keicho 8), the year of his appointment as shogun, Ieyasu issued a large number of land donation letters to temples and shrines in the Mikawa and Totoumi provinces.

On the year following the establishment of the rule of the Tokugawa family, the Buke Shohatto (laws for warrior households) were issued on July 7 and the Kinchu narabini Kuge Shohatto (laws for the imperial and court officials) were issued on July 17, basic laws to be followed by the entire warrior class and the key to controlling the imperial court.

In 1601 (Keicho 6), a year after the Battle of Sekigahara, Ieyasu also began to control overseas trade by issuing shuinjo (shogunate trading licenses) to merchant ships travelling from East Asia to Southeast Asia. In October of the same year, Ieyasu wrote a letter back to Annam (located in northern Vietnam), guaranteeing the safety of ships coming to Japan and requesting a ban on Japanese merchant ships trading in Annan without shuinjo. This is when shuinsen (shogunate-licensed trading ship) trade began.

Ofuregaki was compiled by the 8th shogun, Yoshimune, who ordered the compilation of the laws issued by the shogunate since Ieyasu. The document contains the articles of the Buke Shohatto.

The basic law for control of the Imperial Court by the Edo Shogunate, consisting of 17 articles. This law establishes the responsibilities, status, dress and order of the emperors, the retired emperors, the noble families, the princes, the royal families, and monzeki (Buddhist priests of aristocratic or imperial lineage).

This is a copy of the Shogunate's shuinjo (license to travel abroad) issued to merchant ships travelling overseas from Japan. The original document was copied by Ishin Sūden and is held in Konchi-in, Nanzenji Temple, Kyoto (Important Cultural Property). This document was correctly copied in 1827 (Bunsei 10), including the text, papers, lettering, and position of the shuin (red seal) of the shuinjo.

[Ieyasu's letters]

In 1611 (Keicho 16 ), Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered the daimyos who visited Kyoto to rebuild Kinrigosho (the Imperial Palace). This letter is a reply to Ikeda Terumasa, who was in Kyoto at the time. It is written in kana because Terumasa's wife was Ieyasu's daughter, and she was asked to present it to her husband Terumasa. The letter states that Ieyasu himself will come to pay his respects.

This is a letter from Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) to Ota Kazuyoshi (? -1617), dated January 30, 1598 (Keicho 3). Ota Kazuyoshi traveled to Joseon during the Keicho War (Japanese invasion of Korea) as an inspector to Sodaisho (commander-in-chief) Kobayakawa Hidetoshi (Hideaki) (1582-1602). In October 1597 (Keicho 2), Kato Kiyomasa (1562-1611) and others started to build a castle in Ulsan, but the Ming and Joseon forces attacked Ulsan Castle, so Ota started to retreat to the castle. On January 2 in the following year, reinforcements from Kuroda Nagamasa and others arrived, and on January 4, the Ming and Joseon forces withdrew. At the end of Keicho 2, Ota seems to have informed Ieyasu of the siege, and in this letter Ieyasu praised Ota for his firm defense of Ulsan Castle. Ieyasu himself, on the other hand, informed that he was given leave and stayed in Edo in the end of Keicho 2, but he would soon be going to Kyoto. This letter gives a glimpse into the siege of Ulsan Castle during the Keicho War.