Like a flame
From Asima Mountain, Crazy on the banks of Tsukum
And I will fade away
Body and soul.
Ishida Mitsunari. Death verses. 1560-1600. (Translated by O. Chigirinskaya)
How sweet!
Two awakenings -
And one dream!
Over the swell of this world -
The sky is dawn.
Tokugawa Ieyasu. Death verses. 1543-1616. (Translated by O. Chigirinskaya)
It has always been and will be so that one great person always has an antipode, with which he fights and … in the end wins. That is, it turns out to be greater. Or lucky. Or talented where the other had only ability. Or more vile and insidious. And in the end, the story goes as it goes and as we know it. Otherwise it would be a "would" about which we can only guess. So Ishida Mitsunari - a Japanese commander of the Sengoku period - the "era of the fighting provinces" went down in history exclusively as a man who lost to Tokugawa Ieyasu. Meanwhile, this man was in many ways equal to him. If not by origin, then at least by their position at the time of the loss. He, like Tokugawa, was a vassal of the almighty dictator Toyotomi Hideyoshi and chairman of the board of trustees of the five main daimyo under his young son Toyotomi Hideyori. And he was also the commander-in-chief of the "Western" army in the fateful battle of Sekigahara. He lost the battle, he could not or could not voluntarily commit seppuku, was captured, that is, he fell into the hands of the enemy alive (a shame for the samurai) and was executed in a very shameful way on the orders of Tokugawa Ieyasu. But he could have won this battle. And then Tokugawa would be executed (or make himself seppuku) and then the whole history of Japan could well become completely different. Of course, every person on Earth is born to die. But … you can die in different ways and, for sure, there are few people (if any!) Who would like to die like him.
Sengoku era samurai armor (children's armor in the center). (Anne and Gabriel Barbier-Muller Museum, Dallas, TX)
Well, in the beginning, nothing foreshadowed such a sad fate for him. Mitsunari was born in Omi province (today it is Shiga prefecture) and was the second son of Ishida Masatsugu, who was a vassal of the Azai clan. As a child, he was called by the name Sakichi, but then he changed it, which was customary for the samurai. This was not Europe, where it was unthinkable among the feudal lords. And in the Land of the Rising Sun, one could easily change both the name and even the coat of arms, and this did not surprise anyone. After all, it was still recorded, so "who is who" was recorded very quickly. In 1573, Oda Nobunaga destroyed the Azai clan, and Ishida became a vassal of the Oda clan. And then he turned out to be a vassal of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, to whom the Azai lands were given by Nobunaga as a reward for loyal service.
Portrait of Isis Mitsunari.
He became famous for the fact that during the Toyotomi Hideyoshi war against the Mori clan, he invited him to take castles not by storm, but with the help of an economic blockade. The fact is that since everything was recorded in Japan, it was known exactly which daimyo had how many troops and how much koku rice was shipped to one or another castle. Everyone knew that one koku is 180 liters of rice, or about 150 kg. It was believed that this was enough to feed one samurai for a whole year. Well, then everything is simple. It was necessary to at least roughly find out the number of defenders of the castle and the amount of rice that was stored in it. The latter figure could be found in the imperial archives in Kyoto, and the number of defenders was calculated based on reports from shinobi scouts. After that, all that remained was to interrupt any communication between the castle and the outside world and wait, that is, pure mathematics, in which, as it turned out, Ishida Mitsunari was very strong. Thanks to his recommendations like this, Hideyoshi managed to capture the powerful Tottori Castle and the Takamatsu fortress without great losses in people. True, there was also "honor", which the samurai were very proud of, but the woodcutter's son Hideyoshi did not pay attention to this. The result was important to him, not the way to achieve it!
Under such a nobori standard, Ishida Mitsunari entered the battlefield at Sekigahara.
Then Ishida showed himself to be an “effective manager” in the civil sphere. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi became the sole ruler of Japan in 1584, he appointed Mitsunari the governor of the trading city of Sakai a year later. And while holding this position together with his brother Ishida Masazumi, he managed to triple the income received from him! Naturally, Toyotomi could not help rewarding his faithful servant for such a zealous service to his own person, and he rewarded him - he presented the Sawayama castle in Omi province (all in the same Shiga prefecture). And here Isis showed that he is not only a good business executive, but also understands fortification in the best way. Under his leadership, the castle was rebuilt so that it became considered one of the most impregnable castles in Japan.
Let's imagine that we are companions of the "fighter for justice" Ishida Mitsunari or supporters of Ieyasu Tokugawa and … equip ourselves for battle. Well, of course - "under the bottom" we will have a fundoshi loincloth with a length of 1.5 m, and a lower kimono. But if we are talking about clothes, then we need samurai hakama pants - these are (Tokyo National Museum)
But what will make us a warrior and allow us to participate in the battle? Let's start with the details. If we have warriors under our command, that is, we belong to the daimyo class, then … we need two very important things: a gumbai utiva fan and a saihai commander's wand. Gumbai-utiva with the clan's emblem. (Tokyo National Museum)
Fame went about him that he has a heightened sense of justice, and, moreover, is extremely punctual. And … it is clear that all those who did not have such a heightened sense of justice and were not so punctual, immediately hated him with fierce hatred, including even a relative of Hideyoshi himself, Fukushima Masanori.
Saihai (Tokyo National Museum)
As you know, Hideyoshi's main problem was to conceive an heir from his legal wife and transfer all power to him. However, death came to him before his son Hideyori had time to grow up. However, the dictator dad managed to live long enough to create an original mechanism with which he hoped to transfer power to Hideyori. Two councils, which he opposed to each other, were to monitor the fulfillment of his will.
We will begin to put on armor by tying suneate's leggings to our feet. For example, these are shino-suneate made of metal vertical plates sewn onto fabric and fastened with chains. Their knees are protected by knee pads with sewn hexagonal kikko plates. (Tokyo National Museum)
Suneate could be all-metal, forged and varnished. Three leaves were connected by hinges. Back ties. (Tokyo National Museum)
The first is a board of trustees of five rulers headed by Hideyoshi Mitsunari. All five swore allegiance to Hideyori and enough … hated each other to prevent any one from becoming stronger. That is, Hideyoshi, with his peasant mind, calculated that these five guardians would continue to conflict with each other, but they would destroy any of them who began to strengthen and claim power! Another guardian structure was a council of five elders led by Tokugawa Ieyasu (who also swore allegiance to Hideyori!). And it is clear that the council of elders did not get along with the board of trustees, and while they didn’t get along like that, Hideyori was getting older and older, and, in general, he was not in any danger!
Then they put on legguards - haidate. They, like suneate, were of different types and also had different names. These, for example, (front view) - were made of chain mail (kusari) sewn onto the fabric. The convex knee plates were called hiji-gane. This type was called oda-haidate. (Tokyo National Museum)
Oda-haidate. Back view, where they were fastened with a button, because of which they fit snugly against the hakama. (Tokyo National Museum)
It should be remembered here that in addition to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the council of elders included such influential daimyo as Ukita Hideie, Maeda Toshie, Mori Terumoto and Uesugi Kagekatsu. But the most powerful, richest and most numerous army among them was Tokugawa Ieyasu. And he, of course, strove to take advantage of his position and … become a shogun, that is, the supreme ruler of all samurai in the country! And, of course, his ambitions could not fail to be noticed by his co-rulers. And they, having united, could easily order him to do seppuku, or unite their troops and declare him a rebel, if he refused to do it. Therefore, Ieyasu had to act very, very carefully so that the members of the council could not accuse him of usurping power and (the worst thing!) Open betrayal of Hideyoshi's precepts.
Then it was necessary to put on the gote bracers, tied on the back, and here the samurai could not do without an assistant. It is clear that the oda-haidate legguards should have been worn with bracers - oda-gote. (Tokyo National Museum)
Or kikka-tsutsu-gote, if hexagonal plates were sewn onto them … (Tokyo National Museum)
But it turned out that the main political opponents of Ieyasu were not the regents at all, but only one person - and his name was Ishida Mitsunari. It was he who led the coalition of those daimyo, for whom Ieyasu's aspirations for power were unacceptable and who sought to maintain regency until Hideyori came of age. And from a formal point of view, it was he who was completely right, because: "Oaths and treaties must be fulfilled!" Ishida's supporters were Ukita Hideie, Mori Terumoto and Uesugi Kagekatsu, who came from western Japan. Therefore, their coalition was named Western. Supporters of Ieyasu: Kato Kiyomasa, Hosokawa Tadaoki and Kuroda Nagamasa were princes of eastern Japan, so their coalition was called Eastern.
Only now it was possible to put on the cuirass along with the kusazuri's "skirt". Moreover, communication with foreigners for the Japanese was not in vain. They now increasingly used armor in the namban-gusoku style, that is, "armor of the barbarians." Accordingly, the one-piece forged breastplate of such armor was called namban-do. (Tokyo National Museum)
But, it was also clear that such a precarious balance, firstly, did not suit many people, and secondly, it could not continue until Hideyori came of age! As a result, by 1599, two rather powerful parties or coalitions had formed in the country, which began to fight for the inheritance of Toyotomi. The "Eastern coalition" (so named because it included daimyo from the eastern provinces of Japan) was headed by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the head of the "western" was Ishida Mitsunari.
However, many samurai did not recognize the new trends and tried to dress in the armor of their fathers. Here, for example, armor in the style of katahada-nougat-before 1592, which belonged to the famous commander Kato Kiemasa. (Tokyo National Museum)
Here you need to digress a little and remember that haste in any business often hurts rather than helps. No wonder there is a Chinese proverb that, having an enemy, you should sit quietly on the bank of the river and then his corpse will sooner or later float in front of you! But … not everyone has the wisdom and patience to follow such tactics. I want action, and the one who wants it often does not assume that this is exactly what his opponent wants! In addition, you should always have a moral advantage over him. And who has it? First of all, the one who defends, does not attack! And just in this "struggle of the most patient" Ishida Mitsunari was not up to par, that is, he was the first to make his move in the fight against Ieyasu! He and the other daimyo, his allies, drew up a document of thirteen demands calling for Ieyasu to limit his ambitious intentions, and sent him to the Tokugawa. He took it as a declaration of war on him and, in general, was right, because by this time he had not done "anything bad" yet, and words, even if they are words written in beautiful hieroglyphs on the best rice paper, are all just words and nothing more.
