When Toyotomi Hideyoshi died in 1598, he left a unified Japan in the hands of his five-year-old son, Hideyori – appointing a council of regents, comprising the country’s five most powerful lords. However, as the samurai returned home from the disastrous invasion of Korea, the regents split into two factions – one led by the Hideyori loyalist, Ishida Mitsunari, and the other by their senior-most member, Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Having spent decades helping to unify the realm, Ieyasu had sacrificed too much to leave it in the hands of a child. A veteran of unparalleled prestige and power, he controlled an eighth of Japan’s wealth, bringing in enough food for 2.5 million people every year. In August 1599, as tensions erupted into full-blown conflict, Japan’s warlords were forced to pick a…