Kato Kiyomasa
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The son of a blacksmith, and a native of Owari Province, at the age of 18 he joined rising military warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi, to whom his mother was related.#redirect At the Battle of Shizugatake, he was one of the "seven lancers," and was successful in a number of subsequent battles. In 1586, when Sassa Narimasa was removed from his fief in Higo Province, Kiyomasa received half the province, together with Konishi Yukinaga, and entered Kumamoto Castle at the age of 26#redirect .
A devoted member of Nichiren Shu Buddhism, he encouraged the building of Nichiren temples. He became known for his active participation during the Japanese invasions of Korea. However, he did not see eye-to-eye with Ishida Mitsunari, and Hideyoshi recalled him to Kyoto. He came into conflict with the lord of a neighboring province, a Christian named Konishi Yukinaga. He was noted for suppressing Christianity.#redirect
Kiyomasa was active during the Seven-Year War (1592-1598) against the Korean dynasty of Joseon. He was one of the three supreme commanders to invade the peninsula, and with Konishi Yukinaga, captured Seoul, Busan, and many other crucial cities. The Japanese advance did not last long, however, for General Kato met heavy resistance the following year in the form of General Kwon Yul of the Joseon Army, Admiral Yi Sun-sin of the Korean Navy and Commander Li Rusong of the Chinese Ming salvage force.
Kiyomasa felt the sting of defeat at the disastrous Battle of Haengju, where his 40,000 army was defeated by a force one tenth of that size. Casualities were upwards of 10,000 men. This and many other defeats coupled with the breaking of supply lines from Japan by Admiral Yi Sun-Sin forced Kato's retreat from Korea.
Known for [hunting tigers] for sport armed with only a spear, the Koreans greatly feared Kato Kiyomasa and called him "Kishokan"--"The Devil General". William Scott Wilson describes Kato Kiyomasa thus: "He was a military man first and last, outlawing even the recitation of poetry, putting the martial arts above all else. His precepts show the single-mindedness and Spartan attitudes of the man, (they) demonstrate emphatically that the warrior's first duty in the early 17th century was simply to "grasp the sword and die." Contemporary accounts of Kato describe him as awe-inspiring, yet not unfriendly, and a natural leader of men."
Historian Stephen Turnbull describes the horror and destruction of the Korean Invasions in several of his books as seen through the eyes of the Priest Keinen who accompanied the samurai during the campaign. Keinen's diary "Korea Day by Day" was so controversial that it remained unpublished until 1965. Turnbull also described Kato Kiyomasa's motivation for attacking the Jurchens of Manchuria in 1592 was 'to show the savages the mettle of the Japanese'.
During the Korean action, Konishi Yukinaga had also run into fierce fighting and tried to negotiate a peace treaty with the Korean and Chinese forces surrounding him. Kato was infuriated by the surrender attempt and upon his return to Japan, and on return he ravaged the Konishi family's neighboring domain in retaliation. During the Battle of Sekigahara, Kiyomasa remained in Kyushu. He cooperated with Tokugawa Ieyasu, who after winning, awarded him the former territories of Konishi Yukinaga in Higo Province after Konishi was executed,#redirect increasing his fief to between 520 - 540,000 koku. He died in Kumamoto in 1611.
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