The Imjin War: Japan's Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt to Conquer China

by Samuel Hawley

  [417] Griffis, Corea, 113-114; Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 143.

  [418] Murdoch, 345.

  [419] According to Turnbull, the Japanese chose not to make their stand at the Imjin River because it “would provide but a small obstacle to the Korean army who were familiar with its layout.” (Samurai Invasion, 145.)

  [420] Sonjo sillok, vol. 7, 113 (5/2/Sonjo 26; Mar. 7, 1593).

  [421] Yi Hyong-sok, vol. 1, 674 and 677-678.

  [422] Yu Song-nyong, 163-164; Sonjo sillok, vol. 7, 113-114 (5/2/Sonjo 26; Mar. 7, 1593); Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 8-9 (1/Sonjo 26; Feb. 1593); Goodrich, vol. 1, 833-834; Murdoch, 345; Elisonas, “Trinity,” 280-281; Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 143-148.

  [423] Yu Song-nyong, 164; Goodrich, vol. 1, 834.

  [424] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 9 (1/Sonjo 26; Feb. 1593); Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 143.

  [425] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 13 (2/Sonjo 26; Mar. 1593).

  [426] Samuel Dukhae Kim, 94.

  [427] Yu Song-nyong, 170.

  [428] Hanguk chongsin, vol. 1, 160; Wilbur D. Bacon, “Fortresses of Kyonggi-do,” Transactions of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 37 (1961): 16.

  [429] Yi Hyong-sok, vol. 1, 697 and 699.

  [430] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 14 (2/Sonjo 26; Mar. 1593); Sin Kyong, “Chaejo bonbangji,” in Saryoro bonun, 170-171; Kang Song-mun, “Haengju daechop-eso-ui Kwon Yul chonnyak-gwa chonsul,” in Imjin waeran-gwa Kwon Yul changgun, ed. Chang Chong-dok and Pak Jae-gwang (Seoul: Chonjaeng kinyomgwan, 1999), 110-113.

  [431] Sansom, 358.

  Chapter 18: Seoul Retaken

  [432] Elisonas, “Trinity,” 281; Goodrich, vol. 1, 834.

  [433] Park Yune-hee, 182.

  [434] Hideyoshi to Maa, 26/12/Bunroku 1 (Jan. 28, 1593), in Boscaro, 49. (Maa, the twenty-one-year-old daughter of Maeda Toshiie, was one of Hideyoshi’s concubines.)

  [435] Mashita Nagamori, Ishida Mitsunari, Otani Yoshitsugu, Kato Mitsuyasu, Maeno Nagayasu, Kuroda Nagamasa, Konishi Yukinaga, Mori Yoshinari, Kato Kiyomasa, Nabeshima Naoshige, Fukushima Masanori, Ikoma Chikamasa, Hachizuka Iemasa, Otomo Yoshimune, Yoshikawa Hiroie, Kobayakawa Takakage, and Ukita Hideie to Hideyoshi, 3/3/Bunroku 2 (April 4, 1593), in Katano, 243-244.

  [436] Sonjo sillok, vols. 8-9, passim (4-9/Sonjo 26; May-Oct. 1593).

  [437] Dispatch of 6/4/Wanli 21 (May 6, 1593), Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 88.

  [438] Ibid.

  [439] Diary entry for 18/2/Kyesa (Mar. 20, 1593), Yi Sun-sin, Nanjung ilgi, 16.

  [440] Dispatch of 17/2/Wanli 21 (Mar. 19, 1593), Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 87-88.

  [441] Dispatch 6/4/Wanli 21 (May 6, 1593), ibid., 90-91.

  [442] Ibid., 94.

  [443] Diary entry for 22/2/Kyesa (Mar. 24, 1593), Yi Sun-sin, Nanjung ilgi, 18.

  [444] Diary entry for 4/3/Kyesa (April 5, 1593), ibid., 20.

  [445] Dispatch of 6/4/Wanli 21 (May 6, 1593), Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 92.

  [446] Diary entries for 8/2/Kyesa-20/3/Kyesa (Mar. 10-April 21, 1593), Yi Sun-sin, Nanjung ilgi, 13-23.

  [447] Dispatch of 6/4/Wanli 21 (May 6, 1593), Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 93.

  [448] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 17 (4/Sonjo 26; May 1593); Goodrich, vol. 1, 834; Ledyard, “Confucianism,” 85.

  [449] Yu Song-nyong, 178.

  [450] Cholla Province Army Commander Kwon Yul moved his base to Paju shortly after his victory in the Battle of Haengju in the middle of March.

  [451] Yu Song-nyong, 178-180.

  [452] Stramigioli,104-105.

  [453] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 17-18 (4/Sonjo 26; May 1593).

  [454] Ibid., 18; Kuno, vol. 1, 164-165.

  [455] Murdoch, 345-346; Kuno, vol. 1, 165-166; Aston, 32-33.

  [456] Cho Kyong-nam, “Nanjung chapnok,” in Saryoro bonun, 176; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 18-19 (4/Sonjo 26; May 1593).

  [457] Sonjo sillok, vol. 8, 64-65 (24/4/Sonjo 26; May 24, 1593), and 81-82 (28/4/Sonjo 26; May 28, 1593).

  [458] Ibid., vol. 8, 8 (3/4/Sonjo 26; May 3, 1593); Goodrich, vol. 1, 964-965; Hulbert, vol. 2, 14.

  [459] O. W. Wolters, “Ayudhya and the Rearward Part of the World,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, (1968): 166-172; Geoff Wade, “The Ming shi-lu as a Source for Thai History—Fourteenth to Seventeenth Centuries,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 31, no. 2 (Sept. 2000): 293.

  [460] Yu Song-nyong, 183-184; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 18-19 (4/Sonjo 26; May 1593).

  [461] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 21-22 (5/Sonjo 26; June 1593).

  [462] Hulbert, vol. 2, 11-12.

  [463] Yu Song-nyong, 184-185; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 18-19 (4/Sonjo 26; May 1593).

  [464] Cho Kyong-nam, “Nanjung japnok,” in Saryoro bonun, 176; Hulbert, vol. 2, 12.

  [465] Yu Song-nyong, 185; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 20 (5/Sonjo 26; June 1593); Goodrich, vol. 1, 965.

  [466] Yi Hyong-sok, vol. 2, 1721, identifies the seventeen camps as follows: two at Sosaengpo (Kato Kiyomasa and others); Ilgwangpo (Ito Yuhei, Shimazu Tadatoyo and others); Kijang (Kuroda Nagamasa); Tongnae (Kikkawa Hiroie); two at Pusan (Mori Terumoto); two at Kimhae (Nabeshima Naoshige); Kadok Island (Kobayakawa Takakage, Tachibana Munetora and others); Angolpo (Wakizaka Yasuharu); three at Ungchon (Konishi Yukinaga, So Yoshitoshi, Matsuura Shigenobu and others); and three on Koje Island (Shimazu Yoshihiro and others). According to Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 20–21 (5/Sonjo 26; June 1593), there were only sixteen camps.

  [467] Sonjo sillok, vol. 8, 125-126 (21/5/Sonjo 26; June 19, 1593).

  Chapter 19: Negotiations at Nagoya, Slaughter at Chinju

  [468] Hideyoshi to O-Ne, no date (context suggests early May 1593), in Boscaro, Letters, 53.

  [469] A.D. Sadler, The Maker of Modern Japan. The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1937), 179.

  [470] Cho Chung-hwa, Paro chapun, 69-71. Among the candidates rumored to have been Yodogimi’s lover were Hideyoshi intimate Ono Harunaga, the actor Nagoya Sansu, and Ishida Mitsunari. Ishida can be ruled out, for he was in Korea when Yodogimi conceived in late November or early December 1592. Cho Chung-hwa suggests that the rumors concerning Ishida may have been started by Kato Kiyomasa and Fukushima Masanori in order to damage his reputation.

  [471] Sansom, 365.

  [472] Hideyoshi to Fuku (Ukita Hideie’s mother), 27/5/Bunroku 2 (July 26, 1593), in Boscaro, Letters, 57.

  [473] Michael Cooper, Rodrigues the Interpreter (New York: Weatherhill, 1974), 99; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 23 (6/Sonjo 26; July 1593).

  [474] Katano, 252-257.

  [475] Griffis, Corea, 124.

  [476] After his escape from Nagoya and return to Korea in September of 1593, Che Man-chun was interrogated by Yi Sun-sin, and his report forwarded to the Korean court at Hwangju (Dispatch of 8/Wanli 21 [Aug. 1593], Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 116-117).

  [477] Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings, trans. Thomas Cleary (Boston: Shambhala, 1993), 34.

  [478] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 24-25 (6/Sonjo 26; July 1593).

  [479] Yu Song-nyong, 189.

  [480] Sonjo sillok, vol. 9, 61 (16/7/Sonjo 26; Aug. 12, 1593). According to Yi Hyong-sok, vol. 1, 723, Kim Chon-il had five hundred men, and Choi Kyong-hoe had six hundred.

  [481] According to Choi Hyo-sik, there were some 8,000 Korean defenders present at the Second Battle of Chinju: a local garrison of 2,400, plus 3,000 reinforcements under Kim Chon-il, Hwang Jin, and Choi Kyong-hoe, plus units of uibyong and monk-soldiers. (Imjin waeran-gi Yongnam uibyong yongu [Seoul: Kukhakjaryowon, 2003], 92-93). According to Yi Hyong-sok, vol. 1, 723, reinforcements under Kim, Hwang, and Choi totaled only 1,800.

  [482] This figure of 93,000, which is the one commonly quoted in accounts of the battle, is taken from Japanese sources, and may be too high. According to Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 24 (6/Sonjo 26; July 1593), the attacking Japanese army totaled only 30,000. Che Man-chun, a Korean naval officer captured by the Japanese and pressed into servi
ce as a clerk under Hideyoshi at Nagoya, also stated that 30,000 Japanese troops were present at the Second Battle of Chinju (Dispatch of 8/Wanli 21 (Aug. 1593), Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 118).

  [483] Sin Kyong, “Chaejo bonbangji,” in Saryoro bonun, 179.

  [484] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 26-27 (6/Sonjo 26; July 1593).

  [485] Griffis, Corea, 125; Aston, 36; Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 158-159.

  [486] Kuroda Kafu, in Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 159.

  [487] Palais, Confucian Statecraft, 83.

  [488] This account of the second battle of Chinju is based mainly on Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 26-29 (6/Sonjo 26; July 1593); Sonjo sillok, vol. 9, 61-64 (16/7/Sonjo 26; Aug. 12, 1593); Yu Song-nyong, 187-190; Sin Kyong, “Chaejo bonbangji,” in Saryoro bonun, 177-180; and Hong Yang-ho, “Haedongmyong jangjin,” ibid., 186-187. According to the Japanese account in the Taikoki, 25,000 Koreans were killed in the battle. Most of these “fell from the cliffs and were drowned” (Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 160).

  [489] Yu Mong-in, Ou yadam, in Chong Dong-ju, Non-gae (Seoul: Hangilsa, 1998), 152-153. Ou yadam, written in 1621, contains the earliest known account of the Non-gae story.

  [490] Kuno, vol. 1, 329-332.

  [491] Elisonas, “Trinity,” 282.

  [492] Kuno, vol. 1, 328-329. An alternate translation appears in Berry, 214.

  [493] Stramigioli, 106-107.

  [494] Berry, 215.

  [495] Sonjo sillok, vol. 9, 74 (18/7/Sonjo 26; Aug. 14, 1593).

  [496] Diary entries for 7-11/7/Kyesa (Aug. 3-7, 1593), Yi Sun-sin, Nanjung ilgi, 45-48.

  [497] M. Steichen, The Christian Daimyo. A Century of Religious and Political History in Japan (1549-1650) (Tokyo: Rikkyo Gakuin Press, c. 1900), 196. It was common practice in Japan at this time for a vassal to assume the surname of his master. In his dealings with the Chinese, Naito Joan thus referred to himself as “Konishi Joan.” Similarly, in their initial meetings with Shen Weijing in the fall of 1592, Konishi Yukinaga and So Yoshitoshi introduced themselves as “Toyotomi Yukinaga” and “Toyotomi Yoshitoshi.”

  [498] Sonjo sillok, vol. 9, 196 (5/8/Sonjo 26; Aug. 30, 1593), and 214 (23/8/Sonjo 26; Sept. 17, 1593).

  [499] Ibid, vol. 9, 15 (6/7/Sonjo 26; Aug. 2, 1593).

  [500] Ibid., vol. 9, 11-12 (5/7/Sonjo 26; Aug. 1, 1593).

  [501] Dispatch of 10/8/Wanli 21 (Sept. 4, 1593), Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 104.

  [502] Sonjo sillok, vol. 9, 297 (16/9/Sonjo 26; Oct. 10, 1593).

  [503] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 37-38 (8/Sonjo 26; Sept. 1593). According to Huang, “Lung-ch’ing,” 570, 16,000 Ming troops were left in Korea.

  [504] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 39 (8/Sonjo 26; Sept. 1593).

  [505] Sonjo sillok, vol. 9, 189-193 (14/8/Sonjo 26; Sept. 8, 1593).

  [506] Goodrich, vol. 1, 834-835.

  [507] Cooper, Rodrigues, 104.

  [508] Hideyoshi to O-Ne, 9/8/Bunroku 2 (Sept. 4, 1593), in Boscaro, Letters, 59.

  Chapter 20: Factions, Feuds, and Forgeries

  [509] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 40 (10/Sonjo 26; Oct.-Nov. 1593); Clark and Clark, 75, 87-88, 103, and 105; Hong Soon-min, “Transformation of the Choson Dynasty Palaces and the Kyonghui Palace,” Seoul Journal of Korean Studies 10 (1997): 128.

  [510] Sonjo sillok, vol. 10, 51 (27/10/Sonjo 26; Nov. 19, 1593); Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 41 (11/Sonjo 26; Nov.-Dec. 1593). Ming envoy Si Xian, then in Seoul, recommended Yu Song-nyong for the post of prime minister, and suggested that he be given overall control of state and military affairs. This was not just a reflection of the favorable impression Si had of Yu, but also of growing irritation over what was regarded in Beijing as King Sonjo’s over-reliance on Chinese assistance. Envoy Si in fact brought with him to Seoul a proposal that Sonjo relinquish the throne. Yu and other officials persuaded him to withdraw it. (Information provided to the author by the So-ae Memorial Foundation, Seoul.)

  [511] Yu Song-nyong, 192.

  [512] Palais, Confucian Statecraft, 87.

  [513] Samuel Dukhae Kim, 95-102.

  [514] Palais, Confucian Statecraft, 515-516 and 519.

  [515] Ibid., 88-90.

  [516] Sonjo sillok, vol. 8, 167 (29/5/Sonjo 26; June 27, 1593).

  [517] Ibid., vol. 9, 48 (15/7/Sonjo 26; Aug. 11, 1593).

  [518] Dispatch of 8/Wanli 21 (Sept. 1593), Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 110.

  [519] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 37 (8/Sonjo 26; Sept. 1593).

  [520] Diary entries for 15/5/Kyesa (June 13, 1593) to 28/8/Kyesa (Sept. 22,1593), Yi Sun-sin, Nanjung ilgi, 28-57.

  [521] Diary entries for 5, 10, and 11/6/Kyesa (July 3, 8, and 9, 1593), ibid., 36-38.

  [522] Yi Sun-sin’s letter to Dan Zongren, quoted in Yi’s dispatch of 10/3/Wanli 22 (April 29, 1594), Imjin changch’o, 161-162, and in Yi Pun, 219.

  [523] Diary entries for 3-6/3/Kabo (April 22-25, 1594), Yi Sun-sin, Nanjung ilgi, 78-80; dispatch of 10/3/Wanli 22 (April 29, 1594), Imjin changch’o, 164-170.

  [524] Diary entries for 7 and 13/3/Kabo (April 26 and May 2, 1594), Nanjung ilgi, 80-81.

  [525] Dispatch of 20/4/Wanli 22 (June 8, 1594), Imjin changch’o, 180-182.

  [526] Forged letter from Hideyoshi to the Wanli emperor, 21/12/Wanli 21 (Feb. 10, 1594), in Elisonas, “Trinity,” 283, and Stramigioli, 108. The complete text of the forged letter is quoted in Cho Kyong-nam, “Nanjung chamnok,” in Saryoro bonun, 195-196.

  [527] Sonjo sillok, vol. 12, 124 (24/5/Sonjo 27; July 11, 1594).

  [528] Yu Song-nyong, 192-193. For an alternate translation see Aston, 39-40.

  [529] Sonjo sillok, vol. 12, 88-90 (11/5/Sonjo 27; June 28, 1594).

  [530] Yu Song-nyong, 194; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 42 (11[interclary]/Sonjo 26; Dec. 1593-Jan. 1594); 67 (5/Sonjo 27; June-July 1594), and 76-77 (8/Sonjo 27; Sept.-Oct. 1594).

  [531] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 82 (11/Sonjo 27; Dec. 1594).

  [532] Ibid., vol. 4, 79 (9/Sonjo 27; Oct. 1594).

  [533] Ibid., vol. 4, 89-90 (3/Sonjo 28; April 1595).

  [534] Yujong, “Bunchungseonan-nok,” in Saryoro bonun, 197-201.

  [535] Hideyoshi to his troops in Korea, 16/1/Bunroku 3 (Mar. 7, 1594), in Kuno, vol. 1, 332-333.

  [536] Ibid., 333.

  [537] In his dispatch to Seoul of 10/3/Wanli 22 (April 29, 1594), Yi Sun-sin reported that a Korean prisoner who had escaped from the Japanese camp at Ungchon stated that “Many of [the Japanese] have died of illnesses or fled home while undergoing hardships in building houses and city walls” (Imjin changch’o, 163).

  [538] In his war diary Yi Sun-sin referred frequently from late 1594 onwards to “surrendered Japanese” being allocated to serve in his ranks. Yi questioned some of these men as to why they had surrendered and was told that “their commanding officer was a cruel fellow, driving them hard, so they ran away” (8/1/Pyongsin [Feb. 5, 1596], Nanjung ilgi, 193). Yi appointed one of their number, a man named Minami Uyemon, as unit leader, and employed them mainly as laborers. By Yi’s own account these surrendered Japanese were treated reasonably well while serving in the Korean navy. They were given a feast and gifts of wine and were allowed a good deal of latitude in governing and disciplining themselves.

  On a sultry evening in August, 1596, Yi Sun-sin wrote of the Japanese under his command putting on “a drama with the make-up of actors and actresses…to entertain themselves with their native farce for enjoyment of the day”—a rudimentary form of kabuki, one assumes, performed in the midst of a Korean naval camp (diary entry for 13/7/Pyongsin [Aug. 6, 1596], ibid., 233). It must have been a surreal sight, akin, perhaps, to turncoat Nazi soldiers singing German beer songs on a British army base during WWII.

  [539] Kenneth Lee, Korea and East Asia (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1997), 105.

  [540] The two letters Father de Cespedes sent home from Korea appear in full in Ralph Cory, “Some Notes on Father Gregorio de Cespedes, Korea’s First European Visitor,” Transactions of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 27 (1937): 38-45.


  [541] Hideyoshi’s 1587 edict appears in David J. Lu, Japan. A Documentary History (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1997), 197.

  [542] Streichen, 192; Luis de Guzman, Historia de las Missiones (Alcalca, por la biuda de Ian Gracian, 1601), vol. 12, chap. 37.

  [543] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 79 (9/Sonjo 27; Oct. 1594); Yu Song-nyong, 194; Stramigioli, 110.

  [544] “Three Strategies of Huang Shih-kung,” in Sawyer, 300.

  [545] Diary entry for 17/10/Kabo (Nov. 28, 1594), Yi Sun-sin, Nanjung ilgi, 126-127.

  [546] Diary entry for 3/9/Kabo (Oct. 16, 1594), ibid., 117.

  [547] Diary entries for 29/9/Kabo and 1 and 3/10/Kabo (Nov. 11, 12, and 14, 1594), ibid., 123-125.

  [548] Diary entry for 27/2/Ulmi (April 6, 1595), ibid., 142.

  [549] Yi Pun, 220.

  [550] Sonjo sillok, vol. 14, 75-76 (1/12/Sonjo 27; Jan. 10, 1595); Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 85 (12/Sonjo 27; Jan. 1595).

  [551] Rutt, Bamboo Grove, poem 9.

  [552] Diary entry for 4/10/Kabo (Nov. 15, 1594), Yi Sun-sin, Nanjung ilgi, 124.

  [553] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 45 (12/Sonjo 26; Jan. 1594); Yi Si-yang, “Chahae pildam,” in Saryoro bonun, 207-208; Hong Yang-ho, “Haedongmyong changjon,” ibid., 207.

  [554] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 100 (2/Sonjo 29; Mar. 1596).

  [555] “Sodae kinyon,” in Saryoro bonun, 210.

  [556] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 109-111 (8/Sonjo 29; Sept. 1596). The rebel leader with whom Kim Dong-nyong was accused of being in league was Yi Mong-hak. The antigovernment movement Yi Mong-hak led in Chungchong Province was the most serious uprising to occur during the course of the war.