very start, before Mōri Terumoto announced the declaration of war against the Tokugawa in July 1600. Yoshihiro also played an important role as a member of Mitsunari's core staff and was pivotal in persuading Uesugi Kagekatsu to ally with them. According to the scripts of Yoshihiro's subordinate Kando Kutarō, Yoshihiro got along with Mitsunari from the start, but their relationship was distorted by the novelists of the Edo Period. It was said that Mitsunari did not listen to any of Yoshihiro's plans, including a surprise night attack on the day before the actual battle of Sekigihara. On the day of the battle, Yoshihiro and his 1500 men held ground and did not fight at all. After the rest of Mitsunari's side was wiped out, Yoshihiro was stranded among at least 30,000 of Ieyasu's troops. Vastly outnumbered, Yoshihiro tried to make a charge against Ieyasu himself but after his nephew Shimazu Toyohisa demanded that he not kill himself over a meaningless battle, Yoshihiro instead chose to charge straight through Ieyasu's troop to make an exit to the other side. Yoshihiro had his troops make a fighting retreat called Sutegamari (捨て奸), where until a certain number of men died holding a position and repelling an attack, the main body of the army fought as well. Though Toyohisa and the bulk of the troops died, the charge and retreat were a success with a wound dealt to Ii Naomasa in the process. After beating back the chase, he picked up his wife at Sumiyoshi in Settsu Province and returned to Satsuma Province by ships. The Japanese historian Shiramine Jun studied why the Shimazu clan behaved torpidly and deduced it was because Yoshihiro had become involved in the power struggling between his brother Yoshihisa and Ijūin Tadamune. It led Yoshihiro losing the support of Yoshihisa, which trapped Yoshihiro due to the lack of support from the Shimazu clan. Death In 1602, after recognizing why and how Yoshihiro behaved on the battlefield, Ieyasu had the Shimazu clan retain its domain and let Yoshihiro's son Shimazu Tadatsune succeed him. Yoshihiro retired to Sakurajima and took up teaching younger generations. He died in 1619 and several of his retainers who had fought alongside him followed him by committing suicide. Family It had traditionally been believed that he became the seventeenth head of the Shimazu clan after Yoshihisa, but it is currently believed that he let Yoshihisa keep