After the death of Hideyoshi TOYOTOMI, Ieyasu TOKUGAWA, one of the Gotairo (Council of Five Elders), strengthened his power in the Toyotomi administration, and at the Battle of Sekigahara in which a former member of the Gobugyo (five major magistrates) Mitsunari ISHIDA and others uprose in 1600, he commanded the Eastern Army and rebuffed Mitsunari's Western Army.
豊臣秀吉死後の豊臣政権においては五大老の徳川家康が影響力を強め、慶長5年（1600年）に元五奉行の石田三成らが蜂起した関ヶ原の戦いで家康は東軍を指揮して三成ら西軍を撃破する。