A post-town on the Nakasendo and small city today, Sekigahara is famous primarily as the location of a battle in 1600. The battle between the Tokugawa forces and their opponents saw victory for the Tokugawa. Three years later, Tokugawa Ieyasu took the title of shogun and with his successors presided over a peaceful Japan until 1868. Sekigahara was also the site of an earlier barrier or seki for the inspection, control and taxation of goods and travelers. Hence, the name of the town which means ‘barrier in the field’.
