Module 10 Discussion Post

THE KOREAN WAR

LETTER TO THE KING OF KOREA

On Tensho 18.Xh (December 3, 1590), some two months after returning to Kyoto from his expedition to subjugate the Kant6 region and the northern provinces, Hid­ eyoshi received there a Korean embassy that presented him with a letter of state con­ gratulating him on having unified Japan. This was his response.

8. Who the Ten were is uncertain. It is likely that this was a specially constituted judicial board composed of specialists, but their identities are unknown.

Wm. Theodore de Bary et al., ed., Sources of Japanese Tradition, 2nd ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001)

466 THE MEDIEVAL AGE: DESPAIR, DELIVERANCE, AND DESTINY

This letter's arrogant and pompous tone speaks for itself. Evidently, it suited Hid­ eyoshi to pretend that the Korean ambassadors had brought him a message not of felicitations but of submission from their ruler. The envoys objected to Hideyoshi's breaches of diplomatic propriety, in particular to the condescending form of address "His Excellency" (kakka) in reference to the king of Korea and to the phrase "attending on our court" (nyucho, in other words, demonstrating submission). Their complaints went unheard, and they were forced to take back with them to their country this rodomontade in which Hideyoshi not only announces his plan to invade Ming China, Korea's suzerain, but also intimates ominously that when the time came, Korea was expected to play a significant part in his enterprise.

This is not the only document issued over Hideyoshi's name in which there is mention of a miracle attendant on his conception or birth. The message of intimi­ dation he sent to the Spanish colonial governor of the Philippine Islands in 1591 alludes to it, and the 1593 letter demanding the submission of Taiwan describes it in words similar to those found here. Indeed, he rehearses the story in the instructions he gave his own envoys on what to tell the Ming ambassadors in the Korean peace negotiations of 1593. The lowborn Hideyoshi used such legends to mystify his origins, insinuating that he was of a transcendently lofty lineage. His stated desire to spread his fame throughout the "Three Countries" -Japan, China, and India-is but another indi­ cation that Hideyoshi's ambitions were unbounded.

Hideyoshi, the Imperial Regent of Japan, sends this letter to His Excellency the King of Korea.

I read your epistle from afar with pleasure, opening and closing the scroll again and again to savor the aroma of your distinguished presence.

Now, then: This empire is composed of more than sixty provinces, but for years the country was divided, the polity disturbed, civility abandoned, and the realm unresponsive to imperial rule. Unable to stifle my indignation at this, I subjugated the rebels and struck down the bandits within the span of three or four years. As far away as foreign regions and distant islands, all is now in my grasp.

As I privately consider the facts of my background, I recognize it to be that of a rustic and unrefined minor retainer. Nevertheless: As I was about to be conceived, my dear mother dreamt that the wheel of the sun had entered her womb. The diviner declared, "As far as the sun shines, so will the brilliance of his rule extend. When he reaches his prime, the Eight Directions will be en­ lightened through his benevolence and the Four Seas replete with the glory of

his name. How could anyone doubt this!" As a result of this miracle, anyone

who turned against me was automatically crushed. Whomever I fought, I never failed to win; wherever I attacked, I never failed to conquer. Now that the realm has been thoroughly pacified, I caress and nourish the people, solacing the

orphaned and the desolate. Hence my subjects live in plenty and the revenue

The Regime of the Unifiers 467

produced by the land has increased ten-thousand-fold over the past. Since this empire originated, never has the imperial court seen such prosperity or the capital city such grandeur as now.

Man born on this earth, though he live to a ripe old age, will as a rule not reach a hundred years. Why should I rest, then, grumbling in frustration, where I am? Disregarding the distance of the sea and mountain reaches that lie in between, I shall in one fell swoop invade Great Ming. I have in mind to intro­ duce Japanese customs and values to the four hundred and more provinces of that country and bestow upon it the benefits of imperial rule and culture for the coming hundred million years.

Your esteemed country has done well to make haste in attending on our court. Where there is farsightedness, grief does not come near.9 Those who lag behind [in offering homage], however, will not be granted pardon, even if this is a distant land of little islands lying in the sea. When the day comes for my invasion of Great Ming and I lead my troops to the staging area, that will be the time to make our neighborly relations flourish all the more. I have no other desire but to spread my fame throughout the Three Countries, this and no more.

I have received your regional products as itemized. Stay healthy and take care.

Tensh/5 18.XI. Hideyoshi Imperial Regent of Japan

[Zoku ze0nrin kokuho ki, XXX, in Zoku gunsho ruijii, demivol. 1, fasc. 881, 404; JSAE]

KOREA DAY BY DAY

Keinen (1534?-1611), the author of Chosen hinikki ("Korea Day by Day"), was a priest of the True Pure Land sect in Usuki, a castle town in Kyushu. In the summer of 1597, he was ordered to accompany the daimyo of Usuki, Ota Hida no Kami Kazuyoshi, to Korea as his personal chaplain and physician. Hida no Kami ( or Lord Hishu, as he is called here) was one of the inspectors-general (yokome bugyo) of the Japanese field armies during Hideyoshi's second campaign in that country. Keinen was an innocent abroad in this company, an unwilling eyewitness aghast at what he saw.

The vast majority of the writers who produced the voluminous Japanese literature of Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea gloried in the war of aggression. Keinen is the striking exception. No trace of bombast is found in his record of "Korea Day by Day," which is instead a remarkable outpouring of human compassion from what the author called the arena of demonic violence and described through the metaphor of hell. Keinen's

9. Analects 15:12.

THE MEDIEVAL AGE: DESPAIR, DELIVERANCE, AND DESTINY

memoir is a thoroughly honest historical source, but it is also a conscious literary product, written in the time-honored form of a poetic diary (uta nikki). The running account of his experiences is interspersed w.ith hundreds of simple but affecting epi­ grams written in poetic meter.

Keinen's diary entries cover, day by day, the seven months from Keicho 2.Vl.24 (August 7, 1597), when he left his home, to Keich6 3.ll.z (March 9, 1598), the day of his return to Usuki. The excerpt translated here deals with the three and a half weeks from the disembarkation of Japanese troops in Chc\lla Province, called here by its Japanese code name "Red Country" (Akaguni), to their receipt of orders to invade the "Blue Country" (Aoguni), that is, Ch'ungch'ang Province. It includes an account of one of the second campaign's major battles, the assault on Namwan, a strategic fortress in northern Challa Province. Although heavily reinforced with troops of the Ming expeditionary force in Korea, Namwon fell rapidly to a concentric attack mounted by the combined armies of several daimyo. Having thus secured the road north, the Japanese then marched and countermarched through Challa and Ch'ungch'ang, but they were held on the borders of Kyonggi Province and never reached Seoul during their second Korean campaign.

Eighth Month, 4th day (September 15, 1597). Everyone is trying to be the first off the ship; no one wants to lag behind. They fall over each other in trying to get at the plunder, to kill people. It is a sight I cannot bear to see.

toga mo naki hito no zaihi5 toran tote unka no gotoku tachisawagu tei

A hubbub rises as from roiling clouds and mist where they swarm about in their rage for the plunder of innocent people's goods.

VIII.5. They are burning the houses. As I watched them go up in smoke, I thought that my own existence was like this and was seized by sympathy.

Akaguni to

iedomo yakete

tatsu keburi kuroku noboru wa

homura to zo miru

The "Red Country" is what they call it, but black is the smoke that rises from the burning houses where you see flames flying high.

VIII.6. The very fields and hillsides have been put to the fire, not to speak of the forts. People are put to the sword, or they are shackled with chains and bamboo tubes choking the neck. Parents sobbing for their children, children searching for their parents-never before have I seen such a pitiable sight.

T

no mo yama mo

yakitate ni you

musha no koe

sanagara shura no

chimata narikeri

The Regime of the Unifiers 469

The hills are ablaze with the cries of soldiers

intoxicated with their pyrolatry- the battleground of demons,

VIIL 7, Looking at the various kinds of plunder amassed by them all, I formed a desire for such things, Could I really be like this, I thought, and felt ashamed, How can I attain salvation like this, I thought

ha;wkashiya

miru monogoto ni

hoshigarite

kokoro sumazaru

monen no mi ya

How ashamed I am!

For everything that I see

I form desires- a creature of delusions, my mind full of attachments,

On the same day, as I exerted myself in reflections on my spiritual state, I

felt myself more and more ashamed, And yet the Buddha has vowed not to give weight to the weightiest of evil deeds, not to abandon the most abandoned and intemperate!

osoraku wa

Mita no chikai o

tanomazu wa

kono akushin wa

tare ka sukuwan

Unless it be through

reliance on the vow of

Amida Buddha, who could obtain salvation

with such wicked thoughts as mine?

VIIL8, They are carrying off Korean children and killing their parents, Never shall they see each other again, Their mutual cries-surely this is like the torture meted out by the fiends of hell,

aware nan

shicho no wakare

kore ka to yo

oyako no nageki

miru ni tsuketemo

It is piteous; when the four fledglings parted, 10

it must have been thus- I see the parents' lament

over their sobbing children,

VIII,11, As night fell, I saw people's houses go up in smoke, They have lost everything to the fire, all their grain and all their property,

10, An allusion to the proverbial tale of a mother bird's sorrow at her fledglings' departure to

the four directions; Kongzi jiayu, 18.

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THE MEDIEVAL AGE: DESPAIR, DELIVERANCE, AND DESTINY

asamashiya golwku no tagui yakisutsuru keburi no ato ni hitoyo fushikeri

How wretched it is! Smoke lingers still where the grain was burned and wasted; so that is where I lay my head tonight: on the scorched earth.

VIII. 12. We are heading for Namwon. The high mountains along the way are like nothing I have seen in Japan. The huge rocks are sharp as swords. There also are terrifying waterfalls; just looking at them makes my hair stand on end. This deserves to be called the traverse of the Mountain of Death or the crossing of the River of Hell. There is no place for a man to set his feet here or a horse its hooves.

osoroshiya

Shide no Yama tomo iitsubeshi kumo ni sobiyuru mine o koso yulw

How fearsome, worthy to be called the traverse of the Mountain of Death­ this journey along the ridge of mountains that pierce the clouds.

VIII.i3. His Lordship has set up camp about five leagues this side of Nam­ won. Unless this fortress is taken, our prospects are dubious; so we are to close in and invest it this evening. The word is that fifty or sixty thousand soldiers from Great Ming are garrisoning the place.

Akaguni no shiro mo kotaete ari to kikeba shojin yorokobi ashi o yasumuru

We'll solve the challenge posed even by this fortress of the Red Country!- The troops rejoice to hear this, and they rest their weary feet.

VIII.i4. Rain has been falling steadily since the evening. It comes down in sheets, like a waterfall. We have put up a makeshift tent covered with oil paper only, and it is frightening how the rain pours in. It is impossible to sleep. I had to think of the story "The Devil at One Gulp" in Tales of Ise. 11 The night described in that tale must have been just like this.

nasake naku furishiboritaru

Inexorably, fearsome torrents beating down

11. See Ise monogatari, 6, the story of an abduction that ends badly. The lady in question,

sequestered in a broken-down storehouse to keep her safe from the elements on a dark and stormy night, is devoured "at one gulp" by an ogre who dwells there.

ame ya soma

oni hitokuchi o

omoi koso yare

The Regime of the Unifiers 471

remind me of that dreadful night when the devil at one gulp ate his victim.

VIII. 15. The fortress is to be stormed before dawn tomorrow. Fascines of bamboo have been distributed to the assault troops. The sun was about to set as they worked their way close in, right up against the edge of the castle's bulwarks, and gunfire opened up from the several siege detachments, accom­ panied by arrows shot from short-bows. Unthinkable numbers of men were killed. As I saw them dying:

shiro yori mo

hanatsu teppo

hankyil ni

omoiyorazu no hito zo shinikeru

From the fortress, too, comes gunfire; arrows fly from their short-bows, too. How many killed? Beyond count is the number of the dead.

The castle fell to the assault in the course of the night. Lord Hishil's troops were the first inside the walls. Needless to say, he is to get a vermilion-seal letter of commendation .

VIII.16. All in the fortress were slaughtered, to the last man and woman. No prisoners were taken. To be sure, a few were kept alive for exchange purposes.

muzan ya na

shiranu ukiyo no

narai tote nannyo rosho shi-shite usekeri

How cruel! This world of sorrow and inconstancy does have one constant- men and women, young and old die and vanish; are no more.

VIII. 17. Until yesterday they did not know that they would have to die; today, they are transformed into the smoke of impermanence, as is the way of this world of constant change. How can I be unaffected by this!

tare mo miyo

hito no ue to wa

iigatashi

kyo o kagiri no

inochi narikeri

Look! Everyone, look! Is this, then, to be called the human condition?- a life with a deadline, a life with a limit: today.

Vlll.18. We displace camp deeper into the interior. As I looked at the sur­ roundings of the fortress at daybreak, I saw corpses numberless as grains of sand scattered along the roadsides. It was a sight I could not bear to see.

472 THE MEDIEVAL AGE: DESPAIR, DELIVERANCE, AND DESTINY

Nanmon 110

shiro o tachiide

mite are wa

me mo aterare11u

fuzei narikeri

Leaving behind the fortress of Namwon, I look about me, and I witness a sight that my eyes cannot bear to see.

VIII. 19. This place, too, appears to have been built as a fort, but everyone has fled to the hills and the moors.

kyo wa mata

shira11u tokoro 110

akiie 11i

hitoyo o akasu

koto oshi ;w omou

Once again today I lie down in a strange place in an empty house to spend the night in sadness at the transience of it all.

VIII.20. His Lordship has now arrived in the �apital of the Red Country, and we shall be staying here for at least three days. He is to meet the courier officers

· sent by His Highness from Kyoto and consult on plans for the ongoing cam­ paign. The word is that we are to move on the capital city [Seoul], but the routes to be followed by the several detachments are still to be assigned. In any event, we shall be going into action soon, before the onset of cold weather.

VIII.28 (October 9, 1597). We break camp in the middle of the night. Our next assignment is the Blue Country.

[Keinen, Chosen hinikki, in Chosen gakuho, 35:69-75; )SAE]

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