defense held until 6 September when Mototada committed seppuku with his remaining forces, majorly setting back Mitsunari's attempts to support his castles along the Nakasendō road. Nine days later, Mitsunari entered Ōgaki Castle uncontested. Though the Western Army had attempted to win over the loyalty of Hosokawa Fujitaka, the father of the Eastern Army general Hosokawa Tadaoki, Mitsunari had alienated Fujitaka during the period following Ieyasu's departure from Ōsaka through an abortive hostage-taking ploy resulting in the death of Tadaoki's wife. Fujitaka had instead fortified Tanabe in Tango Province with 500 men in support of Ieyasu. In mid-August, even prior to the official denouncement of Ieyasu, 15,000 Ishida troops under Onoki Shigekatsu had begun a siege of the fortress. However, Fujitaka's influence and prestige as a scholar-poet was so great that the sympathetic Ishida troops gave a weak offense, such as "forgetting" to load cannons before firing on the keep. The siege only ended 19 October following an order by the emperor to surrender to preserve his life and his precious library, following which the Western Army facilitated his retirement to Kyoto. Ōtsu Castle on the southwest shore of Lake Biwa, garrisoned by Kyōgoku Takatsugu came under siege on 13 October by the 15,000-strong Western forces of Mōri Motoyasu, Tachibana Muneshige and Tsukushi Hirokado, along with a naval blockade by Mashita Nagamori. The staunch resistance of the Eastern Army troops under Takatsugu was only ended on the 21 October after the Western Army bombarded the castle from Mount Nagara, by which point the Western besiegers, like Onoki Shigekatsu's troops at Tanabe, were too late to join the decisive battle at Sekigahara. Tōkaidō campaign On 29 August, Ieyasu had established a base of operations in Oyama, and by 1 September Ieyasu began relocating 50,000 troops mustered in Edo north to Oyama, preparing to strike at Kagekatsu in Aizu but not expecting to do so, believing the Date, Mogami and Maeda forces sufficient to halt the Uesugi advance. With the news of the fall of Fushimi, Ieyasu quickly returned to Edo by 10 September, already planning a westward return. Eager to secure the crossroads near Gifu Castle now threatened by the Western Army at Ōgaki Castle, Ieyasu sent Fukushima Masanori, Kuroda Nagamasa, Honda Tadakatsu, Ii Naomasa and Hosokawa Tadaoki ahead along the Tōkaidō road with 16,000 men, followed by 15,000 men under Ikeda Terumasa, Asano Yoshinaga and Yamanouchi Kazutoyo, to fortify Masanori's