TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI
A war veteran and a ruthless administrator, hubris led to his disastrous invasion of the Korean peninsula
1537-98 JAPAN
Undeterred by his family’s low social status, Hideyoshi became a formidable leader in the sengoku era’s waning years. By the 1580s the imperial court in Kyoto recognised his talents, first with the honorific ‘Toyotomi’ and then the formal rank of taiko, and this gave Hideyoshi enough prestige and clout to act as Japan’s national leader.
Invading Joseon in 1592 was part of a Japanese foreign policy designed by Hideyoshi that sought to reorganise maritime trade routes (benefiting Japan) and build an empire. What he did not count on, no matter if the Joseon capital was razed and pillaged, was the national resistance his samurai legions faced. Unlike Japan, with a strict hierarchy dividing commoners and samurai, the Joseon state had a loyal population and an economic system that pivoted to sustaining a long war. It was
