Customer Reviews

Sekigahara 1600: The Final Struggle For Power (Campaign)

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4 star:		(3)
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Battle of Sekigahara was one of the most important moments in Japanese military history since it established the reign of the Tokugawa Shogunate which ruled Japan in peace for the next 250 years or so. The book clearly and basically tell, without bogging down the readers, the politics, reasons and why of this campaign and the battle. The maps provided in this book proves to be highly useful, epecially the one that showed how Japan was divided between Ishida and Tokugawa sides. I think the only issue where the author failed was in part, he didn't explained how the Toyotomi family felt at this period since they were at the moment, the ruling family of Japan. (They thought this was a war between their two major retainers - only to realized later on that only one of the retainers were really loyal to them - the loser!) In a campaign and battle where loyalty, betrayal and backstabbing seem to be the order of day, the author does an admirable job in putting it all together under 100 pages. Considering that there isn't too many books written in English about this battle in the first place, it probably a must read for anyone who have any interest of the Sen-joku Jidai.

I enjoyed the historic details of the events leading up to the battle. The movement of the troops was informative and illustrated very well. The out come was also well written. I wish there were more book like this.

In the battle between the inheritors of Toyotomi Yoshimitsu and the new usurper Tokugawa Ieyasu, there were few of the nicities associated with former times of the Momoyama Jidai. This was a very intense, large, and fanatical battle, worthy in terms of slaughter with those being undertaken in Europe at the same time.

For anyone with little understanding of the intricacies of the battle and the times, this slender volume manages to give you a good background to the events, a political primer of the major figures involved in the eventual politics and battle, details the battle organisation, tactics and weapons of the soldiers and also details in superior graphics the events on the battlefield. For a volume of this size, that is a lot to ask for, but Byant delivers.

It is a good volume and one that I would recommend.

If you are looking for a concise yet complete account of the military operations at Sekigahara then this is the book you're looking for. It is as easy to read and as thorough as any professionally prepared guide to tactics and strategy that I have ever encountered. It reminds of the manuals I used to study when I was in the Army: short, clear, and complete, with no wasted verbage or unnecessary diagrams.

History is like a mirror. We read real stories of great successes and failures in history, we want to learn from the past so that we can repeat successes and avoid the mistakes. We too want to learn about the culture and achievements of people in the past. When we take closer look of the lifestyles our forefathers lived in an environment very different from ours today, we will better understand and appreciate them especially the things they have left behind.

Woo-hoo!

This book is a great combination of the bare bones military maneuverings, and the motivations behind them. As one of the key battles in Japanese history, every student of Japan's history would do themselves well to read this book.

This book offers a simplified explanation of the political motivations and battlefield tactics that led to the defeat of Ishida Mitsunari by the armies of Tokugawa Ieyasu. This is a fascinating account of one of the defining battles in Japanese history. If someone sees A.J.Bryant before I do, ask him about my armor... ;)