INTERACTIVE BATTLE
Siege of Tanabe Castle
August-October 1600 · Tanabe Castle, Tango Province
Hosokawa Yusai held Tanabe Castle with about 500 men and tied down a Western force said to number 15,000 for 52 days, surrendering at the imperial court's urging.
Background
Hosokawa Tadaoki, lord of Tango, had followed Ieyasu on the Aizu campaign. Tango was attacked in his absence on Mitsunari's orders, and his father Yusai burned the other castles and shut himself in Tanabe with about 500 men against a reported 15,000.
Outcome
The court, unwilling to lose Yusai as the holder of the Kokin denju poetic transmission, urged surrender and the 52-day siege was lifted three days before Sekigahara. The Hosokawa were rewarded both for Tadaoki's service and for Yusai keeping 15,000 men from the battle, moving from 120,000 koku in Tango to 390,000 in Buzen and Bungo.
Course of the battle
1 August 1600
The Western army enters Tango
With Hosokawa Tadaoki away on the Aizu campaign, Tango was attacked on Mitsunari's orders. Yusai burned the other castles and shut himself in Tanabe.
Sources1·Certainty: High
2 October 1600
The castle opens at the court's urging
The court, unwilling to lose the holder of the Kokin denju, urged surrender; the 52-day siege ended three days before the battle at Sekigahara.
Sources1·Certainty: High
Historical significance
Like the siege of Otsu it kept Western strength away from the decisive field at Sekigahara, and it is also a case in which something other than force of arms - the transmission of poetic learning - decided how a siege ended.
Key figures
徳川方
1
Defender of Tanabe Castle
Tadaoki's father, known as Yusai; he burned the other castles, held Tanabe for 52 days with some 500 men, and surrendered at the court's urging as holder of the Kokin denju.
Sources1·Certainty: High
石田方
1
Ordered the attack on Tango
He ordered the attack on Tango while Hosokawa Tadaoki was away on the Aizu campaign.
Sources1·Certainty: Medium
Other events of 1600
Notes on the data
Maizuru City gives the siege as 52 days from the 21st day of the 7th month to the 12th day of the 9th month; another account puts the opening on the 19th. The Gregorian dates are therefore kept to the month.
Sources consulted
- 舞鶴市「舞鶴ふるさと発見館（郷土資料館）だより 令和4年9月号」
The numbers in the text refer to the list above. Certainty indicates how far a statement is supported by the cited sources; it does not refer to the precision of the coordinates or the dating.
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