This belief had been spread by Katagiri Katsumoto, Hideyori's personal guardian assigned by Ieyasu since 1599, and who had the intention of dissuading any aggression against the heir.

These temple renovations included the casting of a great bronze bell, with inscriptions that read "May the state be peaceful and prosperous" (国家安康, kokka ankō), and "May noble lord and servants be rich and cheerful" (君臣豊楽, kunshin hōraku).

Despite Katagiri Katsumoto's attempts to mediate the situation, Ieyasu found the ideal pretext to take a belligerent attitude against Yodo-dono and Hideyori.

The situation worsened in September of that year, when the news reached Edo that in Osaka they were grouping a large quantity of rōnin at the invitation of Hideyori.

[2] Furthermore, the Toyotomi clan also failed to convince the Mōri clan under the lead of Mōri Terumoto to join their side,[3] Terumoto instead supported the Tokugawa shogunate, as on November 3, Terumoto ordered his vassals Mōri Motochikazu and Motoyuki Sugimori, who were in charge in Mori Hidemoto's absence, to send half of the troops east if Hidemoto asked them to march out to aid the shogunate in fighting the Toyotomi, while the remaining half, including Sugimori, Motoyoshi Nishi, and Shichirobei Misawa, were to stay in Chofu as caretakers, and to retreat to Hagi if something happened that would make it impossible to maintain Chofu.

The Shōgun's armies were repeatedly repelled, and Sanada and his men launched a number of attacks against the siege lines, breaking through three times.

[6] Aside from the ninja forces, other irregular elements from Iga province such as Tōdō Takatora's Musokunin" (part time samurai) also fought in this battle.

[7][8][9] Ieyasu, realizing that the castle would not fall easily and after consulting with his top advisers, ordered a limited bombing which began on January 8, 1615.

By January 15, with no response from the besieged, Ieyasu began an incessant bombardment that had a mainly psychological effect to diminish the morale of the defenders.

Ieyasu ordered his men to deliberately bomb Yodo-dono's quarters, and when they had found the range, a cannon hit its target, killing two of her maids.

[1] On January 17, Ieyasu sent Honda Masazumi, accompanied by Lady Acha, to meet with Kyōgoku Tadataka, son of Ohatsu, younger sister of Yodo-dono.

During the meeting, Lady Acha assured Ohatsu that Ieyasu had no ill will to Hideyori and that he wished to forgive him, but Hidetada was stubborn about taking the castle, so he had thousands of miners working in tunnels under the pits.

Several days later Ieyasu gave an elusive official response, where he assured that since he had signed an eternal peace, the walls were not necessary.

[1] Even from the moment when peace was being signed, the Toyotomi command proposed to launch a night attack on the Tokugawa camp, although it was finally decided not to do so.

Also, it was arranged to secure the areas surrounding Osaka and take Kyoto to control the emperor, so that he would declare Ieyasu to be a rebel against the Imperial throne.

In response to these reports, Ieyasu issued a ban on March 14 to prohibit ships loaded with annual rice from landing in Osaka and selling their provisions, which was implemented particularly to the daimyo governors from western regions of Japan such as Kyushu and Shikoku.

Faced with these bans, the Toyotomi side began to show signs of internal division due to the problem of rōnin mercenaries roaming in Osaka.

Hideyori was troubled that the ever-increasing number of rōnin, prompting a temporary solution by providing them with gold and silver to stop them from running wild, although at the expense of the Toyotomi clan financially.

Furthermore, Hideyori tried to solve this problem by requesting one of the neighboring provinces to be handed to him to increase the tax incomes during the meeting with Ieyasu on March 15.

The next day he met a traitor from the Toyotomi camp, Oda Yuraku, who informed him that there were several factions within the castle, that the war councils rarely ended in anything conclusive and that Yodo-dono generally intervened in all matters.

[1] In April 1615, Ieyasu received word that Toyotomi Hideyori was gathering even more troops than in the previous November, and that he was trying to stop the filling of the moat.

Chōsokabe's forces achieved victory, but Kimura Shigenari was deflected by the left wing of Ii Naotaka's army.

The main Tokugawa forces moved to assist Todo Takatora after Shigenari's death, and Chōsokabe withdrew for the time being.

[1] Meanwhile, Ii Naotaka sent his Red Demon ninja unit under the lead of Miura Yo'emon, Shimotani Sanzo, Okuda Kasa'emon, and Saga Kita'emon to aid the Tokugawa's regular soldiers in storming the southern gate of Osaka castle.

[1] In the end, Hideyori's commander Sanada Yukimura was killed by Nishio Munetsugu,[17] [a] destroying the morale of the Toyotomi Army.

The final major uprising against Tokugawa rule was put to an end, leaving the shogunate unchallenged for approximately 250 years.

[1] According to an account by an employee of the Dutch East India Company in Hirado, several daimyō set the castle on fire and attempted to defect to Ieyasu.

Roughly one year later on June 1, 1616, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the third and last of the great unifiers, died at the age of 75, leaving the shogunate to his descendants.

[24] The fall of Osaka is (for most of the characters) the final level in the Samurai Warriors series, also serving as the climax of Hattori Hanzō's, Ieyasu's and Yukimura's stories.

In the computer game Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, the siege of Osaka castle is the setting of the first (and demo) mission.