'Sutegamari': At Sekigahara 1600, How Did Yoshihiro Break Through the Enemy Center?

On the afternoon of October 21, 1600 (the fifteenth of the ninth month of Keichō 5), at Sekigahara in Mino Province.

About six hours after the start of combat, through the betrayal of Kobayakawa Hideaki, the Western Army's defeat had become decisive.

Shimazu Yoshihiro's roughly 1,500 Satsuma troops had barely moved during the combat, but at this point were in a state of having their escape route cut off.

They were completely surrounded on all sides by the Eastern Army. Yoshihiro was sixty-six; the judgment at this scene would remain in Japanese military history as the 'Sutegamari.

Ordinarily, the choice a surrounded defeated army takes is surrender or death. The third road Yoshihiro chose was a break-through of the enemy — through the center of the Eastern Army main force in the opposite direction, south down the Ise Highway, and via Ōsaka and Sakai to return to Satsuma.

Distance about 600 kilometers, requiring passage through the territories of Tokugawa-side daimyō en route.

The possibility of success was extremely low, and by the common sense of contemporary warriors it was an unrealistic choice.

Yoshihiro's tactic had the structure in which the rear-guard unit successively became ambushers and engaged pursuers, all falling in combat, while the main body gained distance.

The tactic called 'Sutegamari' (thrown-away rearguard). Of about 1,500 Shimazu troops, the majority became rearguards and sacrificed themselves.

Yoshihiro himself and about several dozen close retainers including his nephew Toyohisa attempted to break through as the main body.

Among the Tokugawa forces that pursued were the Tokugawa Four Heavenly Kings, including Ii Naomasa (this site's id 48) and Honda Tadakatsu.

During the pursuit, Naomasa took a Satsuma-troop gunshot to the thigh, and would die two years later from this wound.

Yoshihiro went south down the Ise Highway, passed through Ōsaka, took ship from Sumiyoshi across the Inland Sea, landed at Hiji in Bungo (modern Ōita Prefecture), and returned to Satsuma via the Kyūshū land route.

About ten days of flight, from the seventeenth of the ninth month to the end of the month.

Companions fell in combat or fell away en route; upon arrival in Satsuma, the total including Yoshihiro is transmitted to have been about eighty.

About 1,500 to eighty — a survival rate of only about five percent, a fierce retreat combat.

The execution of this retreat combat became the source of the Shimazu house's bargaining power in the post-Sekigahara negotiations.