The 1600 Siege of Tanabe was one of a number of battles which took place in parallel to the more influential series of battles known as the

Sekigahara Campaign The Sekigahara Campaign was a series of battles in Japan fought between the Eastern Army aligned with Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Western Army loyal to Ishida Mitsunari, culminating in the decisive Battle of Sekigahara. The conflict was sparked ...

which led to the unification of Japan under

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fel ...

History

The command of Tanabe Castle was held by

Hosokawa Tadaoki was a Japanese samurai warrior of the late Sengoku period and early Edo period. He was the son of Hosokawa Fujitaka with Numata Jakō, and he was the husband of a famous Christian convert (Kirishitan), Hosokawa Gracia. For most of his life, ...

. However, Tadaoki accompanied Ieyasu to

Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , 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 t ...

, as part of the Tokugawa vanguard. Tadaoki's father

Hosokawa Fujitaka , also known as , was a Japanese samurai ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period. Fujitaka was a prominent retainer of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the last Ashikaga shōgun. When he joined the Oda, Oda Nobunaga rewarded him with the fief of Tango and went o ...

and his mother Numata Jakō defended the castle walls against Ikoma Chikamasa's western forces under Onoki Shigekatsu. It is believed that, due to the respect they held for Hosokawa, the besieging army was somewhat slower and less effective than they might have been otherwise, and in the end the battle served to tie up these Western Army (anti-Tokugawa) contingents, preventing them from participating in the battle at Sekigahara.

References

*Turnbull, Stephen (1998). 'The Samurai Sourcebook'. London: Cassell & Co. p252. *Bryant, Anthony J (1995). 'Sekigahara 1600 - The final struggle for power', London: Osprey Publishing. 1600 in Japan Tanabe Conflicts in 1600 {{Japan-battle-stub