November 1614 – January 1615 · Osaka Theater
November 1614 – January 1615
Ieyasu, now shogun, used a deliberately provoked dispute over a temple bell's inscription as pretext to besiege Osaka Castle, where Hideyoshi's son Hideyori had gathered tens of thousands of masterless samurai left unemployed by decades of unification. Sanada Yukimura built an ingenious outwork, the Sanada-maru, that repeatedly bloodied Tokugawa assaults. Unable to storm the castle, Ieyasu bombarded it with massive cannon imported via the Dutch and English, then offered a truce whose terms secretly permitted the demolition of the castle's outer defences.
Commanders