Sekigahara Gifu

As you may or may not know, the Chubu area witnessed the scene of perhaps the most important and defining battle in Japan’s history. The Battle of Sekigahara, maybe best considered to western minds as Japan’s Gettysburg, took place in 1600 in the town of Sekigahara, Gifu. It was pitched between two of the greatest daimyos of the age: Ishida Mitsunari, leader of the western armies loyal to the child ruler Toyotomi Hideyori; and Tokugawa Ieyasu who would come to unite Japan under his and his family’s rule until the feudal era was dismantled by the Meiji restoration. Today, some 400 years later, the town of Sekigahara still carries the legacy of that monumental battle in which up to 40,000 people lost their lives in a staggeringly bloodthirsty six hours. That legacy is tourism. There are many sights in the area including Sekigahara Town and History Folklore Museum, the site of the final battle itself and Higashi Kubizuka Nishi Kubizuka where the heads of the vanquished western samurai were buried under an immense tree. You can also visit the positions of the commanding daimyos of the time from which, as you look out across the town and the fields, you…