Chapter IX. Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
The death of Nobunaga in the forty-ninth year of his age left the country in a critical condition. Sakuma and Shibata had been his active retainers and generals for many years, and they had the most bitter and envious hatred toward Hideyoshi, whom they had seen advance steadily up to and past them in the march of military preferment. It was to Hideyoshi that the country looked to take up the work which Nobunaga's death had interrupted. Akechi began to realize when too late that he must reckon with him for his terrible crime. He appointed two of his lieutenants to assassinate Hideyoshi on his way back to the capital. He sent word to Mōri Terumoto, who was trying to raise the siege of the castle of Takamatsu, concerning Nobunaga's death, hoping that this tragedy would encourage Terumoto to complete his designs.
In the meantime the news had reached Hideyoshi. Terumoto had heard of the starting of Nobunaga with additional troops, and had determined to make peace with Hideyoshi. He had sent messengers with a proposition for peace. The measures [pg 194] for taking the castle had succeeded and it was surrendered. In this state of things Hideyoshi[160] pursued a course which was characteristic of him. He sent word to Terumoto that Nobunaga was now dead and that therefore his proposition for peace might, if he wished, be withdrawn. You must decide, he said, whether you will make peace or not; it is immaterial whether I fight or conclude a treaty of peace. To such a message there could be only one answer. Peace was at once concluded and Hideyoshi started for Kyōto to deal with the traitors.
The attempt to assassinate Hideyoshi on his journey came very near being successful. He was in such eagerness to reach his destination that he hurried on without regard to his army which accompanied him. A small body-guard kept up as well as they could with their impatient chief. At Nishinomiya in this journey Hideyoshi, when in advance of his body-guard, was attacked by a band of the assassins. His only way of escape was by a narrow road between rice fields, leading to a small temple. When he had traversed part of this lane he dismounted, turning his horse around along the way he had come, and stabbed him in the hind leg. Mad with pain, he galloped back with disastrous effect upon the band which was following him. Meanwhile Hideyoshi hurried to the temple. Here the priests were all in a big common bath-tub, taking their bath. Hastily telling them who he was, and begging their protection, he stripped off his clothes and plunged in among the naked priests. [pg 195] When the assassins arrived, they could find nothing but a bath-tub full of priests, whom they soon left in search of the fugitive. As they disappeared, the anxious body-guard arrived, and were astonished and amused to find their chief clad in the garb of a priest and refreshed after his hurried journey with a luxurious bath.[161]
Hideyoshi, as soon as he arrived at Kyōto, issued an invitation to all the princes to join him in punishing those who had brought about the death of Nobunaga. A battle was fought at Yodo, not far from Kyōto, which resulted in the complete defeat of Akechi. He escaped, however, from this battle, but on his way to his own castle he was recognized by a peasant and wounded with a bamboo spear. Seeing now that all hope was gone, he committed hara-kiri, and thus ended his inglorious career. His head was exposed in front of Honnōji, the temple where Nobunaga perished.
As might have been expected, this premature death of Nobunaga—for he was only forty-nine years old—created an intense excitement. The idea of heredity had so fixed a place in men's minds, that the only thought of Nobunaga's friends and retainers was to put forward in his place some one who should be his heir. There were living two sons, both by concubines, viz. Nobuo and Nobutaka, and a grandson, Sambōshi, still a child, who was a son of his son Nobutada, now deceased. Each of these representatives had supporters among the powerful retainers of the dead prince. It may be assumed [pg 196] that each was supported not because of the rightful claim which he had to the estates and the power which the dead prince had left behind him, but solely because the supporters of the successful heir would be entrusted with special authority, and endowed with conquered provinces. It is sufficient to explain here that Hideyoshi supported the candidacy of the grandson, Sambōshi, probably with no higher motive nor more disinterested purpose than the others. After a noisy and hot debate it was finally agreed that the grandson should be installed as successor, and Hideyoshi undertook to be his guardian. He had a large army at Kyōto, and with this he felt strong enough to carry things with a high hand. He appointed a funeral ceremony to be held in honor of Nobunaga, to which all the princes were invited, and he posted his troops in such a way as to command every avenue of approach. He claimed for himself, as guardian of the child Sambōshi, precedence of all the princes and generals. So at the funeral service, with the child Sambōshi in his arms, he proceeded in advance of all others to pay memorial honors to the dead. He supported this action with such an overwhelming display of military force that his enemies were afraid to show any resistance.
The disappointed princes retired to their provinces and hoped that by some fortuitous circumstances they might still be able to circumvent the plans of Hideyoshi. He saw well that he must meet the opposition which would be concentrated on him by activity and force. As a general not one of his enemies [pg 197] could compare with him in fertility of resources, in decisiveness of action, and in command of military strength. His first contest was with his old comrade in arms Shibata Katsuie, who had served with him under Nobunaga, and who was intensely jealous of Hideyoshi's rapid rise in military rank and territorial authority. Shibata had championed the cause of Nobutaka in the contest as to the successor of Nobunaga. He had command of troops in Echizen, and Nobutaka was governor of the castle of Gifu in the province of Mino. The campaign was a short and decisive one. The battle was fought at Shigutake and resulted in the complete defeat of Shibata and his allies. It is notable that in this battle artillery were used and played a conspicuous part. Shibata after his overthrow committed hara-kiri. Nobutaka having escaped also put an end to himself. Thus the active enemies of Hideyoshi in the north and west were overcome and the forfeited territory made use of to reward his friends.
His next contest was with the adherents of Nobuo, the other son of Nobunaga. This was made memorable by the assistance which Ieyasu rendered to Nobuo. Hideyoshi's army, himself not being present, was defeated. Ieyasu being satisfied with this victory and knowing that he could not ultimately triumph now made peace with Hideyoshi. The island of Shikoku, which was under the control of Chōsokabe Motochika was reduced to subjection in a brief campaign and the chiefs compelled to do duty to Hideyoshi as their head.
It seems that at this time Hideyoshi was ambitious [pg 198] to attain official appointment which would legitimately descend to his children and make him the founder of a new line of shōguns. He applied to the ex-shōgun Yoshiaki, whom Nobunaga had deposed[162] and who was now living in retirement, intimating that it would be to his interest to adopt him as his son so that he could be appointed by the emperor as shōgun. But Yoshiaki declined to comply with this suggestion on account of Hideyoshi's humble origin. In place of this appointment, however, he was installed a.d. 1585 by the Emperor Ōgimachi as Kuambaku, which is higher in rank than any other office in the gift of the imperial court. Hitherto this title had been borne exclusively by members of the Fujiwara family, and it must have been a severe blow to their aristocratic pride to have a humble plebeian who had risen solely by his own talents thus elevated by imperial appointment to this dignified position. He also received at this time the name of Toyotomi[163] by which he was afterward called, and in recognition of his successful conquest of much territory he received a.d. 1575 the honorary title of Chikuzen-no-kami.
There were a few years from about a.d. 1583—with an important exception which will be given [pg 199] below—when peace reigned in all the territories of Japan, and when Hideyoshi devoted himself wisely and patiently to the settlement of the feudal condition of the country. It was at this time he began building his great castle at Ōsaka which occupied about two years. Workmen were drawn from almost all parts of Japan, and a portion of it is said to have been finer and more massive than had ever been seen in Japan. This magnificent work[164] survived its capture by Ieyasu in 1614 and remained undisturbed down to the wars of the restoration in 1868, when it was burned by the Tokugawa troops at the time they were about to evacuate it.
The exception to which reference is made above was the important campaign which Hideyoshi was called upon to conduct in the island of Kyūshū against the Satsuma clan.[165] The distance at which Kyūshū lay from the centre of imperial operations, the mountainous and inaccessible character of a great part of the territory, made it no easy matter to deal with the refractory inhabitants of this island. The Satsuma clan even at that early day had a reputation for bravery and dash which made them feared by all their neighbors. The prince of Satsuma at this time was Shimazu Yoshihisa, a member of the same family who held the daimiate until the abolition of the feudal system. It is a tradition that the first of this family was a son of Yoritomo, who in [pg 200] the year a.d. 1193 was appointed governor of Satsuma. Like all the feudal princes of the period, the prince of Satsuma was ambitious to extend his dominion as far as possible. Hyūga, Bungo, Higo, and Hizen were either wholly or in part subject to his authority, so that by the year a.d. 1585 it was the boast of the prince that eight provinces acknowledged him as lord.[166]
It was in this critical period that Hideyoshi was appealed to for help by the threatened provinces. He first sent a special envoy to Kagoshima, who was directed to summon the prince to Kyōto to submit himself to the emperor and seek investiture from him for the territories which he held. Shimazu received this message with scorn, tore up the letter and trampled it under his feet, and declared that to a man of mean extraction like Hideyoshi he would never yield allegiance. Both parties recognized the necessity of deciding this question by the arbitrament of war.
Hideyoshi called upon thirty-seven provinces to furnish troops for this expedition. It is said that 150,000 men were assembled at Ōsaka ready to be transported into Kyūshū. The vanguard, consisting of 60,000 men under Hidenaga, the brother of Hideyoshi, set sail January 7, a.d. 1587. Troops from the western provinces joined these, so that this advanced army numbered not less than 90,000 men.
In due time, January 22d, Hideyoshi himself, with his main army, consisting of 130,000 men, left Ōsaka, marching by land to Shimonoseki, and from this point crossing over to Kyūshū. The Satsuma armies were in all cases far outnumbered, and step by step were compelled to retreat upon Kagoshima. Hideyoshi had by means of spies[167] acquired a complete knowledge of the difficult country through which his armies must march before reaching Kagoshima. After much fighting the Satsuma troops were at last driven into the castle of Kagoshima, and it only remained for Hideyoshi to capture this stronghold in order to end in the most brilliant manner his undertaking.
It was at this juncture that Hideyoshi made one of these surprising and clever movements which stamp him as a man of consummate genius. Instead of capturing the fortress and dividing up the territory among his deserving generals, as was expected, he restored to the Shimazu family its original buildings, viz., the provinces of Satsuma and Ōsumi and half the province of Hyūga, only imposing as a condition that the present reigning prince should retire in favor of his son, and that he should hold his fief as a grant from the emperor. Thus ended one of the most memorable of the [pg 202] campaigns which Hideyoshi had up to this time undertaken, and with this also closed a series of events which exerted a permanent influence on the history of Japan.
It will be desirable at this point to trace the incidents which had transpired in connection with the Jesuit fathers. It will be remembered that the work of the fathers[168] was much interfered with by the political troubles which preceded the advent of Nobunaga. Owing to their taking sides with his enemies he was very much incensed against the Buddhist priests and visited his indignation upon them in a drastic measure.[169] His desire to humiliate the Buddhist priests probably led him to assume a favorable attitude towards the Christian fathers. As long therefore as Nobunaga lived, churches were protected and the work of proselyting went on. Even after the death of Nobunaga in a.d. 1582 nothing occurred for some time to interfere with the spread of Christianity. Hideyoshi was too much occupied with political and military affairs to give much attention to the circumstances concerning religion. Indeed the opinion of Mr. Dening[170] in his Life of Hideyoshi is no doubt true, that he was in no respect of a religious temperament. Even the superstitions of his own country were treated with scant courtesy by this great master of men.
Gregory XIII. seeing what progress the Jesuits were making, and realizing how fatal to success any conflict between rival brotherhoods would be, issued [pg 203] a brief in a.d. 1585, that no religious teachers except Jesuits should be allowed in Japan. This regulation was exceedingly distasteful to both the Dominicans and the Franciscans, especially after the visit of the Japanese embassy to Lisbon, Madrid, and Rome had directed the attention of the whole religious world to the triumphs which the Jesuits were making in Japan. Envy against the Portuguese merchants for their monopoly of the Japanese trade had also its place in stirring up the Spaniards at Manila to seek an entrance to the island empire. The opposition with which Christianity had met was represented as due to the character and behavior of the missioners. In view of these circumstances the Spanish governor of Manila sent a letter to Hideyoshi, asking for permission to open trade with some of the ports of Japan. Four Franciscans attached themselves to the bearer of this letter and in this way were introduced into the interior of Japan. Among the valuable presents sent to Hideyoshi by the governor of Manila was a fine Spanish horse[171] with all its equipments. These Franciscans who came in this indirect way were permitted to establish themselves in Kyōto and Nagasaki. They were at once met by the protest of the Jesuits who urged that the brief of the pope excluded them. But these wily Franciscans replied that they had entered Japan as ambassadors and not as religious fathers, [pg 204] and that now when they were in Japan the brief of the pope did not require them to leave.
A very bitter state of feeling from the first therefore manifested itself between the Jesuits and Franciscans. The latter claimed that the opposition they met with was due to the plots and intrigues of the Jesuits, and they openly avowed that the Jesuit fathers through cowardice failed to exert themselves in the fulfilment of their religious duties, and in a craven spirit submitted to restrictions on their liberty to preach. Hideyoshi's suspicion was aroused against the foreigners about this time, a.d. 1587, by the gossip of a Portuguese sea-captain which had been reported to him. This report represented the captain as saying: “The king, my master, begins by sending priests who win over the people; and when this is done he despatches his troops to join the native Christians, and the conquest is easy and complete.”[172] This plan seemed so exactly to agree with experiences in China, India, and the East Indies, that Hideyoshi resolved to make it impossible in Japan. He therefore issued an edict in the year a.d. 1587 commanding all foreign religious teachers on pain of death to depart from Japan in twenty days. This edict, however, gave leave to Portuguese merchants “to traffic and reside in our ports till further order; but withal we do hereby strictly forbid them, on pain of [pg 205] having both their ships and merchandises confiscated, to bring over with them any foreign religious.”[173]
In consequence of this edict, in a.d. 1593 six Franciscans and three Jesuits were arrested in Ōsaka and Kyōto and taken to Nagasaki, and there burnt. This was the first case of the execution of Christians by the order of the government. To explain the transportation of these missionaries to Nagasaki and their execution there, it should be stated that in a.d. 1586, at the close of the Satsuma campaign, Nagasaki had been taken from the prince of Ōmura and made a government city, to be controlled by a governor appointed immediately from Kyōto. Shortly after this, in a.d. 1590, on account of its superior harbor, it was fixed upon as the only port at which foreign vessels would be admitted.
There was still one refractory element in his dominions which it was necessary to deal with. Hōjō Ujimasa maintained a hostile attitude at Odawara. He was determined once for all to reduce this rebellious chief and the others who might be influenced by his example. It is unnecessary to give the details of this short but decisive undertaking. Only one incident deserves to be given as illustrative of the character of Hideyoshi. In sending troops to the field of action it was necessary that a large number of horses should cross the sea of Enshū,[174] which was usually very rough at that time of year. The boatmen, as is usual, were very [pg 206] superstitious, and had a decided aversion to transporting the horses in their boats; averring that the god of the sea Ryūgū had a special dislike for horses. Hideyoshi sent for the boatmen and told them that he had undertaken this expedition at the command of the emperor, and that the god of the sea was too polite to interfere in anything pertaining to the transportation of troops for such a purpose. He said however that he would make it all right by writing a letter to Ryūgū, instructing him to insure the safe passage of the ships. This was done, and a letter addressed “Mr. Ryūgū” was thrown into the sea. The boatmen were satisfied, and the horses were taken over without difficulty.[175]
With the fall of Odawara the whole of the Kwantō, comprising the provinces of Sagami, Musashi, Kōtsuke, Shimotsuke, Hitachi, Shimōsa, Kazusa, and Awa came into the possession of Hideyoshi. During the progress of the siege, it is said that he and Ieyasu were standing in a watch tower which they had built on the heights above the castle of Odawara. Hideyoshi pointed to the great plain before them and said[176]: “Before many days I will have conquered all this, and I propose to give it into your keeping.”
Ieyasu thanked him warmly and said: “That were indeed great luck.”
Hideyoshi added: “Wilt thou reside here at Odawara as the Hōjō have done up to this time?”
Ieyasu answered: “Aye, my lord, that I will.”
“That will not do,” said Hideyoshi. “I see on the map that there is a place called Yedo about twenty ri eastward from us. It is a position far better than this, and that will be the place for thee to live.”
Ieyasu bowed low and replied: “I will with reverence obey your lordship's directions.”
In accordance with this conversation after the fall of Odawara, Ieyasu was endowed with the provinces of the Kwantō and took up his residence at Yedo. This is the first important appearance of Yedo in the general history of Japan. It had however an earlier history, when in the fifteenth century it appears as a fishing village called Ye-do, that is door of the bay. Near this fishing village Ōta Dōkwan, a feudal baron, built himself in a.d. 1456 a castle. With the advent of Ieyasu, Yedo became a place of first importance, a rank which it still holds. The object of Hideyoshi in thus entrusting this great heritage to Ieyasu seems to have been to secure him by the chains of gratitude to himself and his family. Already Ieyasu was connected by marriage with Hideyoshi, his wife being Hideyoshi's sister. By making him lord of an immense and powerful country he hoped to secure him in perpetual loyalty to himself and his heirs.
In order that he might be free from the cares and responsibilities of the government at home, Hideyoshi retired from the position of kwambaku a.d. 1591 and took the title of Taikō. By this title he came to be generally known in Japanese history, Taikō Sama, or my lord Taikō, being the form by [pg 208] which he was commonly spoken of. His nephew and heir Hidetsugu was at this time promoted to the title of kwambaku, and was ostensibly at the head of the government. The Jesuit fathers speak of him as mild and amiable, and as at one time a hopeful student of the Christian religion. They note however a strange characteristic in him, that he was fond of cruelty and that when criminals were to be put to death he sought the privilege of cutting them into pieces and trying cruel experiments upon their suffering bodies.
In a.d. 1592 Taikō Sama had by one of his wives a son, whom he named Hideyori. Over this new-born heir, whom, however, many suspect of not being Taikō Sama's son, he made great rejoicing throughout the empire. He required his nephew to adopt this new-born son as his heir, although he had several sons of his own. The result of this action was a feeling of hostility between the uncle and nephew. Hidetsugu applied to Mōri, the chief of Chōsū, to aid him in the conflict with his uncle. But Mōri was too wary to enter upon such a contest with the veteran general. Instead of helping Hidetsugu, he revealed to Taikō Sama the traitorous proposition of his nephew. Hidetsugu was thereupon stripped of his office and sent as an exile to the monastery of Kōya-san in the province of Kii. A year later he was commanded with his attendants to commit hara-kiri; and with an unusual exhibition of cruelty, his counsellors, wives, and children were likewise put to death.
Hideyoshi had for a long time contemplated the [pg 209] invasion of Korea and ultimately of China. In a conversation with Nobunaga when he was about to set out on his conquest of the western provinces he is represented as saying[177]: “I hope to bring the whole of Chūgoku into subjection to us. When that is accomplished I will go on to Kyūshū and take the whole of it. When Kyūshū is ours, if you will grant me the revenue of that island for one year, I will prepare ships of war, and purchase provisions, and go over and take Korea. Korea I shall ask you to bestow on me as a reward for my services, and to enable me to make still further conquests; for with Korean troops, aided by your illustrious influence, I intend to bring the whole of China under my sway. When that is effected, the three countries [China, Korea, and Japan] will be one. I shall do it all as easily as a man rolls up a piece of matting and carries it under his arm.” He had already carried out part of this plan; he had brought the whole of Chūgoku and of the island of Kyūshū under his rule. It remained for him to effect the conquest of Korea and China in order to complete his ambitious project.
For this purpose he needed ships on a large scale, for the transportation of troops and for keeping them supplied with necessary provisions. From the foreign merchants, who traded at his ports, he hoped to obtain ships larger and stronger than were built in his own dominions. It was a great disappointment to him when he found this impossible, and that the merchants, whom he had favored, were unwilling [pg 210] to put their ships at his disposal. It is claimed by the Jesuit fathers that this disappointment was the chief reason for the want of favor with which Hideyoshi regarded them during the last years of his life. It is also advanced as one reason for his entering on the invasion of Korea, that he might thus employ in distant and dangerous expeditions some of the Christian princes whose fidelity to himself and loyalty to the emperor he thought he had reason to doubt. He was ambitious, so they said, to rival in his own person the reputation of the Emperor Ōjin, who rose in popular estimation to the rank of Hachiman, the god of war, and who is worshipped in many temples, because, while he was still unborn, his mother led a hostile and successful expedition into this same Korea.
The immediate pretext[178] for a war was the fact that for many years the embassies which it had been the custom to send from Korea to Japan with gifts and acknowledgments had been discontinued. In a.d. 1582 he sent an envoy to remonstrate, who was unsuccessful. Subsequently he sent the prince of Tsushima, who had maintained at Fusan, a port of Korea, a station for trade, to continue negotiations. After some delay and the concession of important conditions the prince had the satisfaction, in a.d. 1590, of accompanying an embassy which the government of Korea sent to Hideyoshi. They arrived [pg 211] at Kyōto at the time when Hideyoshi was absent on his campaign against Hōjō Ujimasa at Odawara. He allowed them to await his return, and even when he had resumed his residence at the capital he showed no eagerness to give them an audience. On the pretence that the hall of audience needed repairs, he kept them waiting many months before he gave orders for their reception. It seemed that he was trying to humiliate them in revenge for their dilatoriness in coming to him. It is not impossible that he had already made up his mind to conduct an expedition in any event into Korea and China, and the disrespect with which he treated the embassy was with the deliberate intention of widening the breach already existing.
Mr. Aston has given us an account of the reception which was finally accorded to the ambassadors, drawn from Korean sources, and which shows that they were entertained in a very unceremonious fashion. They were surprised to find that in Japan this man whom they had been led to look upon as a sovereign was only a subject. They presented a letter from the king of Korea conveying his congratulations and enumerating the gifts[179] he had sent. These enumerated gifts consisted of horses, falcons, saddles, harness, cloth of various kinds, skins, ginseng, etc. These were articles which the Japanese of an earlier age had prized very highly and for the more artistic production of some of which the Koreans [pg 212] had rendered material assistance. Hideyoshi suggested that the embassy should return to their own country at once without waiting for an answer to their letter. This they were unwilling to do. So they waited at Sakai whence they were to sail, till the kwambaku was pleased to send them a message for their king. It was so arrogant in tone that they had to beg for its modification several times before they dared to carry it home. The letter plainly announced his intention to invade China and called upon the Koreans to aid him in this purpose.
The ambassadors went home with the conviction that it was Hideyoshi's intention to invade their country. At their instigation the government made what preparations it could, by repairing fortresses, and collecting troops, arms, and provisions. The country was a poor country, and had had the good fortune or the misfortune to remain at peace for two hundred years. The arts of war had been forgotten. They had no generals who could cope with the practised soldiers of Japan. Firearms which had been introduced into the military equipments of Japanese armies were almost unknown in Korea. It is true that they had been taken under the protection of China and could call upon her for aid. But China was distant and slow, and Korea might be destroyed before her slumbering energies could be aroused.
The preparations which Hideyoshi made, as was his custom, were thorough and extensive. Each prince in Kyūshū, as being nearest to the seat of war, was required to furnish a quota of troops in [pg 213] proportion to his revenues. Each prince in Shikoku and in the Main island, in like manner, was to provide troops proportionate to his revenue and his proximity to the seat of war. Princes whose territories bordered on the sea were to furnish junks and boats, and men to handle them. The force which was thus assembled at Nagoya, now called Karatsu, in Hizen was estimated at 300,000 men, of whom 130,000 were to be immediately despatched. Hideyoshi did not personally lead this force. It was under the command of two generals who were independent of each other, but were ordered to co-operate. One of these generals was Konishi Yukinaga Settsu-no-kami, whom the Jesuit fathers refer to under the name of Don Austin. From an humble position in life he had risen to high and responsible rank in the army. Under the influence of Takeyama, a Christian prince, whom the Jesuit fathers call Justo Ucondono, he had been converted to Christianity. Hideyoshi, as has been pointed out, was desirous of securing the help of the Christian princes in Kyūshū, and therefore appointed a Christian as one of the generals-in-chief. Under him were sent the contingents from Bungo, Ōmura, Arima, and other provinces where the Christian element was predominant. This division of the invading army may therefore be looked upon as representing the Christian population of the empire. The other general-in-chief was Katō Kiyomasa,[180] who had been [pg 214] associated with Hideyoshi ever since the times of Nobunaga. He was the son of a blacksmith and in a.d. 1563 he became one of Hideyoshi's retainers. He was a man of unusual size and of great personal bravery. He commanded an army collected mainly from the northern and eastern provinces, which comprised the experienced veterans of Hideyoshi's earlier campaigns. He is usually spoken of as inimical to the Christians, but this enmity probably grew up along with the ill-feeling between the two armies in Korea.
Konishi's division arrived in Korea April 13, a.d. 1592, and captured the small town of Fusan, which had been the port at which the Japanese had for generations maintained a trading post. After the arrival of Katō the two divisions marched towards the capital, reducing without difficulty the castles that lay in their way. The greatest terror prevailed among the inhabitants, and the court, with King Riyen at its head, resolved to flee into the province bordering on China. The armies reached the capital and then set out northward. The dissensions between the commanders had by this time reached such a point that they determined to separate. Katō traversed the northeastern provinces and in his course captured many Koreans of rank.
Konishi marched to the north and found the king at Pingshang on the borders of the river Taitong-Kiang. Here he was joined by Kuroda Noritaka, whom the Jesuit fathers named Condera[181] Combiendono, [pg 215] and by Yoshitoshi the prince of Tsushima, who had marched with their forces by a different route. An effort at negotiations at this point met with no success. The king continued his flight northward to Ichiu, a fortified town on the borders of China. After he left a sharp contest took place between the besiegers and defenders, which resulted in the abandonment of the town and its capture by the Japanese. The stores of grain which had been collected by the Koreans were captured with the town.
Konishi was anxious to conduct further military operations in connection with the Japanese vessels which had been lying all this time at Fusan. Directions were accordingly sent to have the junks sent round to the western coast. The Koreans picked up courage to show fight with their vessels, which seemed to have been of a superior construction to those of their enemies. They allured the Japanese boats out to sea and then turned upon them suddenly and treated them so roughly that they were glad to get back to the protection of the harbor and to give up the purpose of cruising along the western coast. The result of this little success encouraged the Koreans so much that it may be said to have been a turning point in the invasion.
In the meantime the piteous appeals of the Koreans to China had produced some effect. A small army of five thousand men, which was raised in the adjoining province of Laotung, was sent to their aid. This insufficient force rashly undertook to attack the Japanese in Pingshang. But they [pg 216] led the invaders into the town, and then so thoroughly routed them that the escaped remnants made their way back to Laotung. This experience led the Chinese officials to see that if they wished to help the Koreans at all they must despatch a stronger force. This they set to work at once to do. They endeavored to gain some time by pretending to enter upon negotiations for an armistice. During the autumn months of a.d. 1592 the Japanese troops were almost idle. And they were very much taken by surprise when near the end of the year the Chinese army, forty thousand strong, besides Koreans, made its appearance on the scene. The Japanese commander had no time to call for help, and before he realized the imminency of the danger Pingshang was attacked. Being far outnumbered Konishi deemed it prudent to make his escape from the beleaguered town, and to save his army by a retreat, which was a painful and inglorious one.
The other division of the Japanese army under Katō, who had occupied the west coast, found its position untenable with a superior Chinese army threatening it. It also was compelled to retreat towards the south. But the veteran army of Katō was not content to yield all that it had gained without a struggle. A bloody engagement followed near Pachiung, in which the Chinese and Korean army suffered a significant defeat. The Chinese army then retired to Pingshang, and Katō was not in a condition to follow it over the impassable winter roads and with deficient supplies. The Japanese troops had suffered an experience such as never befell [pg 217] them under the redoubtable leadership of Hideyoshi. And the Chinese had had enough of the terrible two-handed swords which the Japanese soldier could wield so effectively.[182]
The chief obstacle to peace was the mutual distrust with which each of the three parties regarded the others. Korea hated the Japanese with a perfect and justifiable hatred; she also feared and despised the pompous and pretentious pride of China. But in the negotiations which ensued the country which had suffered most had least to say. It remained for the two greater powers to come to some agreement which should be satisfactory to them; and whether Korea were satisfied or not was of secondary moment.
The Japanese envoy proceeded to Peking and is said to have negotiated peace on these conditions: That the emperor of China should grant to Hideyoshi the honor of investiture, that the Japanese troops should all leave Korea, and that Japan should engage never to invade Korea again. There was some jangling about the withdrawal of the Japanese soldiers but at last this matter was arranged.
An embassy was sent by the Chinese government to Japan to carry out the ceremony of investiture. They arrived in the autumn of the year a.d. 1596. Taikō Sama made elaborate preparations for their reception. Some fears were felt as to how Taikō Sama would regard this proposition of investiture when he came to understand it. The Buddhist priest, who was to translate the Chinese document [pg 218] into Japanese[183] for the benefit of Taikō Sama, was urged to make some modification in the wording to conciliate his ambition. But he was too honest to depart from the true rendering. He read to Taikō Sama and the assembled court a letter from the Chinese emperor granting him investiture as king of Japan, and announced having sent by the ambassadors the robe and the golden seal pertaining to the office.
Taikō Sama listened with amazement,[184] as he for the first time realized that the Emperor of China by this document had undertaken to invest him as king of Japan instead of (“Ming emperor”). He was in an uncontrollable rage. He tore off the robe which he had put on. He snatched the document from the reader and tore it into shreds, exclaiming: “Since I have the whole of this country in my grasp, did I wish to become its emperor I could do so without the consent of the barbarians.” He was with difficulty restrained from taking the life of the Japanese ambassador who had negotiated the treaty. He sent word to the Chinese envoys who had brought the robe and seal to begone back to their country and to tell their emperor that he would send troops to slaughter them like cattle. Both Korea and China knew that a new invasion would [pg 219] surely result from this disappointment. Katō and Konishi the Japanese generals in the previous campaign and who had gone home during the interval were ordered back to take command of the old troops and of fresh recruits which were to be sent. They busied themselves with repairing the fortifications which had been left in possession of the Japanese garrisons.
The disgraced and frightened Chinese ambassadors made their way back to Peking. They were ashamed to present themselves without showing something in return for the gifts they had carried to Taikō Sama. They purchased some velvets and scarlet cloth, which they represented as the presents which had been sent. They pretended that Taikō Sama was much pleased with the investiture, and that his invasion of Korea was due to the fact that the Korean government had interfered to prevent the free and kindly intercourse between China and Japan. The cloth and velvet, however, were at once recognized as European productions and not derived from Japan. So the ambassadors were charged with deceit and at last confessed.
The Japanese army was reinforced, it is said, with 130,000 fresh troops. Supplies, however, were difficult to obtain, and the movements were much hindered. A small Chinese army of 5,000 men arrived at the end of the year a.d. 1597 to aid the Koreans. An attack on the Japanese ships at Fusan was made by the Korean navy, but it was without difficulty repelled and most of the attacking ships destroyed. After some material advantages, which, however, [pg 220] were not decisive, the Japanese troops were forced to return to Fusan for the winter. The principal engagement was at Yöl-san, a strong position, accessible both by sea and land. It was garrisoned by troops of Katō's division, who were brave and determined. The army composed of Chinese and Koreans, under the Chinese commander-in-chief Hsing-chieh, laid siege to this fortress, and succeeded in cutting off all its communications. But Kuroda and Hachisuka came to Katō's assistance, and compelled the Chinese general to raise the siege and retreat to Söul, the Korean capital. It was in one of the battles fought during the summer of a.d. 1598, that 38,700 heads of Chinese and Korean soldiers are said to have been taken. The heads were buried in a mound after the ears and noses had been cut off. These grewsome relics of savage warfare were pickled in tubs and sent home to Kyōto, where they were deposited in a mound in the grounds of the temple of Daibutsu, and over them a monument erected which is marked mimi-zuka or ear-mound. There the mound and monument can be seen to this day.[185]
The death of Taikō Sama occurred on the day equivalent to the 18th of September, a.d. 1598, and on his death-bed he seems to have been troubled with the thought of the veteran warriors who were uselessly wearing out their lives in Korea. In his last moments he opened his eyes and exclaimed earnestly: “Let not the spirits of the hundred thousand troops I have sent to Korea become disembodied [pg 221] in a foreign land.”[186] Ieyasu, on whom devolved the military responsibility after the Taikō's death, and who had never sympathized with his wishes and aims regarding Korea, did not delay the complete withdrawal of the troops which still remained in Korea.
Thus ended a chapter in the history of Japan, on which her best friends can look back with neither pride nor satisfaction. This war was begun without any sufficient provocation, and its results did nothing to advance the glory of Japan or its soldiers. The great soldier who planned it and pushed it on with relentless energy gained nothing from it except vexation. Much of the time during which the war lasted he sat in his temporary palace at Nagoya in Hizen, waiting eagerly for news from his armies. Instead of tidings of victories and triumphs and rich conquests, he was obliged too often to hear of the dissensions of his generals, the starving and miseries of his soldiers, and the curses and hatred of a ruined and unhappy country. All that he had to show for his expenditure of men and money were several saké tubs of pickled ears and noses with which to form a mound in the temple of Daibutsu, and the recollection of an investiture by the emperor of China, which could only bring to him pain and humiliation.
The only beneficial results to Japan that can be traced to all this was the introduction into different provinces of some of the skilled artisans of Korea. The prince of Satsuma, Shimazu Yoshihiro, in [pg 222] a.d. 1598, brought home with him when he returned from the Korean war seventeen families of Korean potters,[187] who were settled in his province. They have lived there ever since, and in many ways still retain the marks of their nationality. It is to them that Satsuma faïence owes its exquisite beauty and its world-wide reputation.
Hideyoshi.
When the Taikō realized that his recovery was impossible he tried to arrange the affairs of the empire in such a way as to secure a continuation of the power in his son Hideyori, who was at that time only five years old. For this purpose he appointed a council consisting of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Maeda Toshi-ie, Mōri Terumoto, Ukita Hide-ei and Uesugi Kagekatsu, of which Ieyasu was the president and chief. These were to constitute a regency during his son's minority. He also appointed a board of associates, who were called middle councillors, and a board of military officers called bugyo. He called all these councillors and military officers into his presence before he died, and made them swear allegiance to his successor Hideyori. There seems to have been among them a suspicion of the fidelity of Ieyasu, for the Taikō is represented as saying to two of his friends: “You need not be anxious about Ieyasu. He will not rebel against my house.[188] Cultivate friendship with him.” Thus in his sixty-second year died (September, 1598) the greatest [pg 223] soldier, if not the greatest man, whom Japan has produced. That he rose from obscurity solely by his own talents, is a more conspicuous merit in Japan than in most other countries. Family and heredity have always counted for so much in this land of the gods, that few instances have occurred in which men of humble birth have risen to eminence. That one such in spite of his low birth, in spite of personal infirmities, in spite of the opposition and envy of contemporaries, had risen to so high a position in the empire, has been a source of [pg 224] pride and encouragement to thousands of his countrymen.
The Taikō was buried close to the Daibutsu temple, which he himself had built to shelter the colossal figure of Buddha, constructed in imitation of the Daibutsu which Yoritomo had built at Kamakura. The figure was to be one hundred and sixty feet in height, and the workmen had it nearly finished when a terrible earthquake in a.d. 1596 shook down the building. In the following year the temple was rebuilt, and the image was completed up to the neck. The workmen were preparing to cast the head, when a fire broke out in the scaffolding and again destroyed the temple, and also the image. It was one of the schemes of Ieyasu, so it is said, to induce the young Hideyori to exhaust his resources upon such expensive projects, and thus render him incapable of resisting any serious movement against himself. He therefore suggested to the boy and his mother that this temple and image, which Hideyoshi had begun, should not fail of erection. They therefore resumed the construction, and carried it on with great lavishness. It took until a.d. 1614 to complete the work, and when it was about to be consecrated with imposing ceremonies, Ieyasu, who by this time was supreme in the empire, suddenly forbade the progress of the ceremony. He affected to be offended by the inscription which had been put on the bell,[189] but the real reason was probably his desire to find some pretext by which he could put a quarrel upon the adherents of Hideyori.