Torii Mototada

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(1539-1600), son of Torii Tadayoshi, was a daimyo (feudal lord) in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the commander of the garisson of Fushimi Castle. He died at the siege of Fushimi where his garrison was greatly outnumbered and destroyed by the army of Ishida Mitsunari.

In August 1600, [Torii Mototada], a feudal Lord in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu was forewarned by spies that an army of 40,000 battle hardened followers of Toyotomi Hideyoshi were annihilating everything in their path on their march to Fushimi Castle. The 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 has served the Tokugawa for generations and how his own brother has 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 men 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 Pro-Toyotomi forces at Sekigahara in open battle on the Kanto plain—-where he had the advantage. In a massive bloodletting, more than 200,000 warriors would clash violently. 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 Ishida Mitsunari's vanquished army were hunted down and executed. The leaders of Toyotomi's western army were quickly apprehended, tortured and executed at the Rokujô-ga-hara execution grounds in Kyoto. Konishi Yukinaga was offered the opportunity to commit honorable seppuku, but he declined because his Christian religion forbade it. He was later beheaded as a common criminal. 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.

Torii Mototada

See also