Torii Mototada
Encyclopedia
was a Japanese samurai
of the Sengoku period
through late Azuchi-Momoyama Period
, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu
. Torii died at the siege of Fushimi
where his garrison
was greatly outnumbered and destroyed by the army of Ishida Mitsunari
. Torii's refusal to surrender changed the course of Japanese history; the fall of Fushimi bought Ieyasu some time to regroup and eventually win the Battle at Sekigahara
.
, the son of Torii Tadayoshi
. As a boy, he was sent as hostage to the Imagawa clan
, together with the future Tokugawa Ieyasu
. The young Mototada served the then-Matsudaira Takechiyo as a page. After Ieyasu's return from the Imagawa clan, and his unification of Mikawa Province
, Mototada served as one of his chief generals.
In 1572, Mototada succeeded the Torii family headship, following the death of his father. He fought at the Battle of Mikata-ga-hara and Battle of Suwahara Castle the following year and was wounded in the legs, which rendered walking difficult for him from then on.
's force of over 10,000, and defeated them; soon after, Ieyasu granted him Tanimura Castle in Kai Province
. Later, in 1585, he joined Okubo Tadayo
and Hiraiwa Chikayoshi
in laying siege to the Sanada clan
's Ueda Castle
.
After Ieyasu's move to the Kantō region
, Torii was granted the 40,000 koku
fief of Yasaku in Shimōsa Province, which made him a daimyo
.
were annihilating everything in their path on their march to Fushimi Castle. The 2000 man garrison at Fushimi Castle was badly outnumbered, yet escape for the men inside was still possible. In an act of loyalty to his lord Tokugawa Ieyasu, Torii chose to remain behind, pledging that he and his bastion would fight to the finish.
In a moving last statement addressed to his son Tadamasa, Torii described how his family served the Tokugawa for generations and how his own brother had been killed in battle. In the letter, Torii stated that he considered it an honor to die first so that he might give courage to the rest of the Tokugawa warriors. He requested that his son raise his siblings to serve the Tokugawa Clan "In both ascent and decline" and to remain humble desiring neither lordship nor monetary reward. Lifelong friends, Torii Mototada and Tokugawa Ieyasu parted ways sadly knowing that they would never see each other again:
"It is not the Way of the Warrior to be shamed and avoid death even under circumstances that are not particularly important.....For myself, I am resolved to make a stand within the castle and to die a quick death. It would not take much trouble to break through a part of their numbers and escape, no matter how many tens of thousands of horsemen approached for the attack or by how many columns we were surrounded. But that is not the true meaning of being a warrior, and it would be difficult to account as loyalty. Rather, I will stand off the forces of the entire country here, and...die a resplendent death."
In the end, with the castle in flames around him, Torii ordered his men to charge headlong into battle over and over again until only ten remained. The castle defenders fought heroically to the last man. As was custom, Torii killed himself rather than be captured alive.
The siege of Fushimi Castle stalled the advancement of the 40,000 troops by ten days, allowing Tokugawa to escape.
Torii Mototada's actions changed the course of Japanese history. Tokugawa Ieyasu would raise an army of 90,000 and confront Ishida Mitsunari's forces at Sekigahara in what would be one of the bloodiest battles in the Sengoku Era. Forty-thousand heads would be taken in the first hours of battle and 70,000 would perish in the next two days as the remnants of Mitsunari's vanquished army were hunted down and executed. The battle of Sekigahara
was a decisive one, resulting in the unification of Japan. Tokugawa’s family would rule the entire country for the next 268 years.
Mototada's suicide at the fall of Fushimi is one of the most celebrated acts of seppuku
in Japanese history.
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
of the Sengoku period
Sengoku period
The or Warring States period in Japanese history was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The name "Sengoku" was adopted by Japanese historians in reference...
through late Azuchi-Momoyama Period
Azuchi-Momoyama period
The came at the end of the Warring States Period in Japan, when the political unification that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate took place. It spans the years from approximately 1573 to 1603, during which time Oda Nobunaga and his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, imposed order...
, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa Ieyasu
was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan , which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but...
. Torii died at the siege of Fushimi
Siege of Fushimi
The siege of Fushimi was a crucial battle in the series leading up to the decisive battle of Sekigahara which ended Japan's Sengoku period. Fushimi Castle was defended by a force loyal to Tokugawa Ieyasu's Eastern army, led by Torii Mototada...
where his garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
was greatly outnumbered and destroyed by the army of Ishida Mitsunari
Ishida Mitsunari
Ishida Mitsunari was a samurai who led the Western army in the Battle of Sekigahara following the Azuchi-Momoyama period of the 17th century. Also known by his court title, Jibunoshō...
. Torii's refusal to surrender changed the course of Japanese history; the fall of Fushimi bought Ieyasu some time to regroup and eventually win the Battle at Sekigahara
Battle of Sekigahara
The , popularly known as the , was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 which cleared the path to the Shogunate for Tokugawa Ieyasu...
.
Early life
Torii was born in OkazakiOkazaki, Aichi
is a city located in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. As of August 2011, the city had an estimated population of 373,339 and a population density of 964 persons per km². The total area was 387.24 km².-Geography:...
, the son of Torii Tadayoshi
Torii Tadayoshi
was a Japanese samurai of the mid-Sengoku period. Longtime retainer of Matsudaira Hirotada and later, his son Tokugawa Ieyasu. When Ieyasu was sent to Sunpu to be a hostage to the Imagawa clan, Tadayoshi served alongside Matsudaira Shigeyoshi as castle warden of Okazaki Castle...
. As a boy, he was sent as hostage to the Imagawa clan
Imagawa clan
The was a Japanese clan that claimed descent from Emperor Seiwa . It was a branch of the Minamoto clan by the Ashikaga clan.-Origins:Ashikaga Kuniuji, grandson of Ashikaga Yoshiuji, established himself in the 13th century at Imagawa and took its name.Imagawa Norikuni received from his cousin the...
, together with the future Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa Ieyasu
was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan , which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but...
. The young Mototada served the then-Matsudaira Takechiyo as a page. After Ieyasu's return from the Imagawa clan, and his unification of Mikawa Province
Mikawa Province
is an old province in the area that today forms the eastern half of Aichi Prefecture. It was sometimes called . Mikawa bordered on Owari, Mino, Shinano, and Tōtōmi Provinces....
, Mototada served as one of his chief generals.
In 1572, Mototada succeeded the Torii family headship, following the death of his father. He fought at the Battle of Mikata-ga-hara and Battle of Suwahara Castle the following year and was wounded in the legs, which rendered walking difficult for him from then on.
Service under Ieyasu
Mototada served in all of Ieyasu's major campaigns. With only 2,000 men he mounted a rearguard action against the Hojo clanHojo clan
See the late Hōjō clan for the Hōjō clan of the Sengoku Period.The in the history of Japan was a family who controlled the hereditary title of shikken of the Kamakura Shogunate. In practice, the family had actual governmental power, many times dictatorial, rather than Kamakura shoguns, or the...
's force of over 10,000, and defeated them; soon after, Ieyasu granted him Tanimura Castle in Kai Province
Kai Province
, also known as , is an old province in Japan in the area of Yamanashi Prefecture. It lies in central Honshū, west of Tokyo, in a landlocked mountainous region that includes Mount Fuji along its border with Shizuoka Prefecture....
. Later, in 1585, he joined Okubo Tadayo
Okubo Tadayo
was a samurai general in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Azuchi-Momoyama period, subsequently becoming a daimyō in early Edo period , Japan.Ōkubo Tadayo was the eldest son of Ōkubo Tadakazu, a hereditary retainer of the Tokugawa clan...
and Hiraiwa Chikayoshi
Hiraiwa Chikayoshi
was a Japanese daimyo of the early Edo period. He ruled the Inuyama Domain....
in laying siege to the Sanada clan
Sanada clan
The was a Japanese clan which rose to prominence in the Sengoku period. During the Edo era, the Sanada ruled the Matsushiro Domain, where they remained until the Meiji Restoration.-Sengoku period:...
's Ueda Castle
Ueda Castle
Ueda Castle was the original home of the Sanada clan, built by Sanada Masayuki.It was this castle that the Sanada defended twice from the Tokugawa, first in 1583 and again in 1600, putting up a very impressive defense both of those times....
.
After Ieyasu's move to the Kantō region
Kanto region
The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Within its boundaries, slightly more than 40 percent of the land area is the Kantō Plain....
, Torii was granted the 40,000 koku
Koku
The is a Japanese unit of volume, equal to ten cubic shaku. In this definition, 3.5937 koku equal one cubic metre, i.e. 1 koku is approximately 278.3 litres. The koku was originally defined as a quantity of rice, historically defined as enough rice to feed one person for one year...
fief of Yasaku in Shimōsa Province, which made him a daimyo
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
.
Last stand and death
In August 1600, Torii was forewarned by spies that an army of 40,000 battle-hardened followers of Toyotomi HideyoshiToyotomi Hideyoshi
was a daimyo warrior, general and politician of the Sengoku period. He unified the political factions of Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle...
were annihilating everything in their path on their march to Fushimi Castle. The 2000 man garrison at Fushimi Castle was badly outnumbered, yet escape for the men inside was still possible. In an act of loyalty to his lord Tokugawa Ieyasu, Torii chose to remain behind, pledging that he and his bastion would fight to the finish.
In a moving last statement addressed to his son Tadamasa, Torii described how his family served the Tokugawa for generations and how his own brother had been killed in battle. In the letter, Torii stated that he considered it an honor to die first so that he might give courage to the rest of the Tokugawa warriors. He requested that his son raise his siblings to serve the Tokugawa Clan "In both ascent and decline" and to remain humble desiring neither lordship nor monetary reward. Lifelong friends, Torii Mototada and Tokugawa Ieyasu parted ways sadly knowing that they would never see each other again:
"It is not the Way of the Warrior to be shamed and avoid death even under circumstances that are not particularly important.....For myself, I am resolved to make a stand within the castle and to die a quick death. It would not take much trouble to break through a part of their numbers and escape, no matter how many tens of thousands of horsemen approached for the attack or by how many columns we were surrounded. But that is not the true meaning of being a warrior, and it would be difficult to account as loyalty. Rather, I will stand off the forces of the entire country here, and...die a resplendent death."
In the end, with the castle in flames around him, Torii ordered his men to charge headlong into battle over and over again until only ten remained. The castle defenders fought heroically to the last man. As was custom, Torii killed himself rather than be captured alive.
The siege of Fushimi Castle stalled the advancement of the 40,000 troops by ten days, allowing Tokugawa to escape.
Torii Mototada's actions changed the course of Japanese history. Tokugawa Ieyasu would raise an army of 90,000 and confront Ishida Mitsunari's forces at Sekigahara in what would be one of the bloodiest battles in the Sengoku Era. Forty-thousand heads would be taken in the first hours of battle and 70,000 would perish in the next two days as the remnants of Mitsunari's vanquished army were hunted down and executed. The battle of Sekigahara
Battle of Sekigahara
The , popularly known as the , was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 which cleared the path to the Shogunate for Tokugawa Ieyasu...
was a decisive one, resulting in the unification of Japan. Tokugawa’s family would rule the entire country for the next 268 years.
Mototada's suicide at the fall of Fushimi is one of the most celebrated acts of seppuku
Seppuku
is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for samurai. Part of the samurai bushido honor code, seppuku was either used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies , or as a form of capital punishment...
in Japanese history.
See also
- BushidoBushido, meaning "Way of the Warrior-Knight", is a Japanese word which is used to describe a uniquely Japanese code of conduct and a way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry. It originates from the samurai moral code and stresses frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and...
, an ethical code of conductCode of ConductA code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the responsibilities of or proper practices for an individual, party or organization. Related concepts include ethical codes and honor codes....
, developed in the 12th to 14th centuries in JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...