Sekigahara

The account

On a foggy October morning, 160,000 samurai met in a mountain valley and decided the next two and a half centuries. Tokugawa Ieyasu's victory over the Toyotomi loyalists began the shogunate that ruled Japan until 1868. The banners of each clan still stand in the fields where their lines once formed, the most important battlefield in Japanese history.

Leads, where the trail points now

• The field is at Sekigahara, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and arms, shot, and relics still come out of the ground there.
• Detecting or digging needs landowner or park permission, and any significant find should be recorded; many battlefields are protected.
• Work the documented account of Sekigahara to learn where the fighting, the camps, and the rout actually ran before you look.