Konishi Yukinaga

Early years

Very little is known about the first half of Konishi Yukinaga’s life. It is believed that he came from a merchant family who was engaged in the sale of medicines in the city of Sakai . According to 16th-century Jesuit reports, Yukinaga was born in 1555 (1 year of the Koji era) in the capital of Kyoto, where his father, Konishi Ryusa, moved from Sakai. Probably in the capital, young Yukinaga first became acquainted with Christianity. There, he perfectly studied the technique of using the kenjutsu sword.

Yukinaga’s father was in charge of the business of one of the Oda generals, Hashiba Hideyoshi , the future "unifier of Japan." The latter was friendly to the young Konishi. This acquaintance played a decisive role in the career of Yukinaga.

In the 1570s, Konishi Yukinaga was hired by the adjutant of Ukita Naoye, the owner of the Bizen and Mimasaka provinces (now Okayama Prefecture ), which was vassal of the Mori clan . When in the late 1570s this clan entered the war against Oda Nobunaga , Ukita crossed over to the latter. Thanks to his young and talented diplomat Yukinage, having successfully negotiated with the commander of the Oda forces, Hashiba Hideyoshi, Ukita managed to avoid the redistribution of their lands and occupy a high position among Nobunaga's vassals.

After the death of Ukita Naoye in 1581 (the 9th year of the Tensho era), Yukinaga left the suzerain house and was readily accepted for service to Hashiba Hideyoshi .

In the service of Hideyoshi

In 1581, the new owner entrusted Konishi with control of the important port of Murotsu in the province of Harima (now Hyogo Prefecture ) and appointed him overseer of maritime communications between Harima and the city of Sakai. A year later, Hideyoshi handed over the leadership of the strategically important Azuki island to him, making Yukinaga responsible for the transportation and communications of the eastern part of the Inland Sea of ​​Japan . In 1583, Konishi was appointed "ship overseer" ( 舟 奉行 ), that is, the head of Hideyoshi's fleet.

In the early 1580s, Yukinaga became close to Takayama Ukon , the leader of Japanese Christians in the Kinki region , and under his influence adopted a new faith. At baptism, he received the name "Augustino" (Augustine).

In 1585, Konishi, as Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Forces, Hideyoshi, took part in the extermination of the Buddhist rebels Saig and Nengoro in Kiya Province . He led the artillery shelling of enemy fortifications from ships.

In 1588 , for the suppression of riots in the Higo province, Yukinaga received from the overlord three southern districts of this province with a center in the castle of Usa, whose annual income was 120 thousand coca . The northern lands went to General Kato Kiyomasa , a relative of Hideyoshi, who sought to unify Higo under his command and because of this clashed with Konishi. The confrontation between Yukinaga and Kiyomasa acquired a religious coloring, since the first professed Christianity , and the second was an adherent of the most fanatical Buddhist school of Nichiren . Both rivals differed in how they governed their territories. Konishi Yukinaga favored the peaceful management of the province, contributed to the development of domestic and foreign trade, and was involved in urban development. In contrast, Kato Kiyomasa was a supporter of the "militaristic way of managing", imposed high military duties on the population, held a large army without any special need, and fortified its lands with inaccessible castles.

Probably in the late 1580s, Yukinaga married the daughter of Tsushima's ruler, So Yoshitoshi. Under the influence of Konisi, his wife and father-in-law adopted Christianity. In baptism, they received the names "Justa" and "Dario."

War in Korea

With the start of the Korean expedition Hideyoshi in 1592 (1 year of the Bunkoku era), Konishi arrived at the front with a samurai detachment of 7,000 people. By order of the suzerain, he was entrusted with the vanguard 1st Division numbering 18,700 soldiers. To encourage Yukinaga to exploits, Hideyoshi granted him the right to use the name Toyotomi. It was very honorable, since Konishi was equated with close relatives of Hideyoshi himself, the ruler of Japan. In order to stimulate the vigorous action of Yukinagi on the front line, Hideyoshi appointed Kato Kiyomasu as the commander of the second vanguard division. During all military operations in Korea, these two generals tried to surpass each other.

In the war, Yukinaga proved to be a gifted commander. On May 25, 1592, his troops were the first to take the Korean city of Busan , and in June - the capital of Korea, Seoul . Hideyoshi was so pleased with the victories of Konishi troops that he promised to give him a third of the lands of the Korean Peninsula as a reward.

After the fall of Seoul, the first division of Yukinaga moved north and captured Pyongyang at the end of July. In August, Konishi defeated the first Chinese contingent under its walls, which appeared to help the Koreans ^[1] . However, with the beginning of 1593, the 150,000-strong Chinese army under the command of Li Zhusong forced Yukinaga to leave the city and retreat to Seoul.

On February 27, 1593, at the Battle of Pokchegwan, the Japanese rebuffed the unified Sino-Korean army and stopped its advance to the south of the peninsula. However, the samurai did not have the strength to continue the conquest of Korea - the lack of personnel replenishment and the activity of Korean partisans in the rear affected. The Korean fleet seized the initiative at sea and cut the connection of the Japanese with their homeland. The expeditionary forces were isolated in enemy territory, without the support of the local population and provisions. In such a situation, the morale of the samurai troops fell.

To save the army from starvation and extermination, Konishi Yukinaga in June 1593 began negotiations with the Chinese command on a peaceful settlement of the conflict. Samurai retreated from Seoul to the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula. Chinese envoys were sent to Japan to work out peace conditions. They were received by Ishida Mitsunari , one of Hideyoshi's most talented advisers, who, like Konishi, understood the perniciousness of continuing the war. Despite the catastrophic position of the samurai troops at sea, the Japanese ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi made excessive demands on China and Korea. His passions were fueled by Konishi's longtime opponent, Kato Kiyomasa, who sent two captured Korean princes to Japan as evidence of a "victorious war." Seeing that the negotiation process could come to a standstill due to Hideyoshi’s reluctance to perceive the real situation in Korea, Yukinaga and Mitsunari decided to make peace secretly behind their overlord.

In 1594, Konishi Yukinaga's vassal, Naito Tadayasu, was sent to Beijing to sign peace. He was imprisoned on Chinese terms. The Japanese were to immediately withdraw their troops from Korea. As a concession, the Chinese emperor gave Toyotomi Hideyoshi the label of vassal " king of Japan." In 1596, the text of the treaty and the letter from Emperor Ming arrived with the embassy in Japan. Hideyoshi kindly received them, but when he found out that the world was signed against his demands, he got very angry, drove out the ambassadors and ordered the execution of Konishi Yukinaga as the person responsible for the negotiations.

In response to the "impudent offers" of the Chinese, Hideyoshi ordered the renewal of the conquest of Korea. Since there were few capable commanders who would have valuable combat experience and knew Korea, he pardoned Yukinaga and appointed him commander of the 2nd Vanguard Division, "General of the Left Army," with only 14,700 people.

The new expedition was also successful at the beginning. The Japanese conquered the province of Kyosan in May 1597 and built their fortifications in it. Subsequently, they conquered the main stronghold of Korean partisans in the province of Cholla, upon receipt of which the samurai of Yukinagi were especially distinguished. However, in the fall, the Japanese were counterattacked by the Sino-Korean combined forces, which pushed the enemy back to the southern coast of the peninsula. Samurai were forced to switch to positional defense . As the Korean fleet regained supremacy at sea, the Japanese were cut off from their homeland. The Sino-Korean army constantly attacked coastal castles, the last fortifications of the samurai. Konishi held Sunchon Castle and twice successfully repelled the assaults of the numerically dominant enemy.

On September 18, 1598, the ruler of Japan Toyotomi Hideyoshi died. The council of five elders took over his powers, which decided to evacuate Japanese troops from Korea and end the war. The samurai began a retreat, but the Korean fleet became a nuisance to them. On December 16, in a battle in the Noryang Bay, he sank more than half of the enemy ships that were returning to Japan. The retreating were threatened with complete destruction, if not for the ships of Konishi Yukinagi and Shimazu Yoshihiro, who, despite heavy losses, were able to sink the flagship of the Koreans during the battle. The latter stopped the persecution, and the samurai expeditionary army returned home.

Battle of Sekigahar

In 1600, a conflict broke out between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Ishida Mitsunari over the chairmanship of the Toyotomi family after Hideyoshi's death. The first headed the so-called “Eastern Coalition”, which mainly included the rulers of East Japan, and the second - “Western”, which was joined by most samurai in the west of the country. Yukinaga joined the Isis' Western Coalition. Jesuit priests advised Konishi to join Tokugawa, but he refused.

In the decisive battle at Sekigahar on October 21, 1600 , Konishi commanded 6,000 soldiers (according to other versions - 4,000) of the Western Coalition. His position was on the left of the forces of Ukita Hidee, on the front line of the front. At eight o’clock in the morning he was attacked by four units of the Eastern Coalition army under the command of Terazawa Hirotaki (2400), Furuta Shigekatsu (1200), Kanamori Nagatiki (1140) and Oda Nagamasu (450). Yukinaga skillfully repelled all enemy attacks, inflicting significant losses with advancing arquebus fire. When the enemy was about to flee, an urgent message arrived that the Western Coalition general Kobayakawa Hideaki had betrayed her and went over to the side of the enemy. His forces hit the left flank of Ukita Hideye’s army, defeated her and attacked Konishi’s position. Despite desperate attempts to resist the onslaught of the enemy from both sides, the small army of Yukinaga was soon destroyed. Konishi himself retreated from the battlefield to Mount Ibukiyama in Omi Province. Not wanting to suffer the bitterness of defeat, but not being able to make seppuku because of his Christian convictions, he voluntarily surrendered to the winners.

On November 6, 1600, heads were cut off in Kyoto Konishi and Ishida Mitsunari. According to the tradition of the Jesuits, during the execution he prayed holding in his hands the images of Christ and the Virgin Mary sent to him by the Queen of Portugal. Although Yukinaga was a little cool towards Christianity after the decree was issued to expel missionaries from Japan ( 1588 ), the Church believes that he fulfilled his calling because it was because of Christian motives that he refused to lay hands on himself.

Yukinaga's 12-year-old eldest son was also executed. It is believed that Konishi had another son who escaped repression and entered the service of the Kuroda family, one of the Christian samurai clans on the island of Kyushu . However, subsequently, by order of the shogunate , he was expelled from Japan to Macau and killed by the hands of an assassin. Yukinaga’s wife was imprisoned in a monastery in Nagasaki , where she died in 1605 . The direct line of the Konishi clan was interrupted.

• 『国史 大 辞典』 15 巻, 17 册 (Great Dictionary of Japanese History). 东京, 吉川弘 文 馆, 1972-1997. 第 5 巻, P.933-934 (Japanese)

• Biography of Konishi Yukinaga (Japanese)