Iyeyasu, though of indomitable courage in war, was a man of gentle methods. His keen perception showed him every aspect of an affair, and his patience in unraveling difficulties never failed. So long as the reins of administration remained in his hands, quiet obedience was everywhere accorded to his sway. No one opposed him. As for Hideyoshi, he soon appreciated the Tokugawa chief and treated him with all the consideration due to his great gifts. Iyeyasu had large ambition. Coming into possession of the Kwantō provinces, he sat down quietly to foster his strength and bide his time, Hideyoshi, meanwhile, wasting his resources in fruitless attacks upon Korea and thus impairing the prosperity which his transcendent abilities had obtained for him. Finally, before his foreign wars had reached any issue, he died, bequeathing his power to his son, Hideyori, then a lad of only seven years. The usual results of a minor's administration ensued. The government fell into disorder. Once more the old rivalry sprang up among the feudal chiefs, each struggling for supremacy. Above them all towered Tokugawa Iyeyasu, for his influence was superior even to that of the Toyotomi family. [Illustration: CENTRAL JAPAN] Gradually the various dissentient elements disposed themselves into two great parties. The one, including Katō Kiyomasa, Fukushima Masanori, Kuroda Nagamasa, Asano Yukinaga, and other notables, was under the leadership of Iyeyasu, and the other, to which belonged Mōri Terumoto, Uyesugi Kagekatsu, Ukita Hideiye, and forty-three other feudal chiefs, hostile to the Tokugawa, was under the real leadership of Ishida Mitsunari, a favorite of the late Hideyoshi, and under the nominal leadership of the _taikō's_ son, Hideyori. The latter party had their headquarters in the Ōsaka castle, and the struggle for mastery was finally concluded in a great battle, fought on September 15, 1600. Iyeyasu was the assailant. Marching westward at the head of an army of 80,000, he encountered Mitsunari's forces, numbering 130,000, on the Sekigahara plain in Mino, the Ōsaka confederates having moved thus far to the combat. Swords were crossed at eight in the morning, and the battle waged with the utmost fierceness for six hours, the Ōsaka army being ultimately defeated with a loss of 30,000. Mitsunari and Yukinaga were among the slain, and tradition says that the whole plain was red with gore. So decisive was this victory that other nobles who had espoused the cause of Hideyori and were fighting for it in their own districts now laid down their arms and hastened to come to terms with the victor. Iyeyasu now set himself to consolidate his power. Confiscating, wholly or in part, the estates of the chiefs who had opposed him, he made ample grants to his own supporters. The administrative power of the empire came wholly into his hands, and every part of the country accepted his control. Three years later he was