about twenty-five meters long, powered mainly by oars, with an additional deck to separate the oarsmen below from the fighting men above. This upper deck was enclosed by high walls to afford the fighting men some protection and had a castle-like structure built in the center from which the captain could issue commands. With a full complement of cannons and a well-trained crew, a seaworthy panokson was superior to anything in the Japanese navy, a floating fortress that Hideyoshi’s lightly built and lightly armed vessels would be unable to combat. Unfortunately for Yi, however, many of the panokson he took command of in 1591 were not seaworthy. They were old and decrepit and in desperate need of repair, and would keep his shipwrights occupied into the early days of the war.
In addition to refurbishing his fleet of worm-eaten vessels, Yi, in cooperation with his master shipwright Na Tae-yong, set out to build a new type of battleship that would pack even more punch than the panokson and be even more indestructible. They would call it the kobukson , the “turtle ship.” It would be a startling innovation in naval warfare, a heavy, armored vessel, bristling with cannons pointing in every direction, its top deck completely enclosed under an impenetrable spiked roof resembling a turtle’s shell. Only a few of these turtle ships would be built and see service in the Imjin War. But they would be the scourge of the Japanese navy.
CHAPTER 7
The Final Days
Hideyoshi was off on a hunting excursion at the start of 1592. It was a prolonged affair, perhaps intended to take him away from Kyoto and the bitter memory of his only child, Tsurumatsu, who had died at the age of two in the fall of the previous year. During the five-week sojourn, thousands of birds and animals were shot. Finally, on January 30, the great hunter returned to the capital “as though in triumph,” arriving in a European-style carriage before a gathering of nobility and then displaying his bountiful catch. [151]
For his next adventure Hideyoshi planned to invade Korea and conquer China. He had initially intended for his armies to set sail on the first day of the third month—April 12 by the Western calendar—possibly because he considered the day lucky. He had begun his Kyushu campaign on this day in 1587, and his offensive against Hojo Ujimasa, lord of Odawara, on this day in 1590. But the first soon proved out of the question. Mustering his huge invasion force and getting it positioned at Nagoya and on the forward staging areas of Iki and Tsushima Islands was more time consuming than Hideyoshi and his planners had calculated upon. “D-Day” was thus pushed ahead to the twenty-first of April.
Hideyoshi was also waiting to hear from Tsushima daimyo So Yoshitoshi whether the Koreans had softened their stance and would “lead the way to Ming,” thus sparing him the trouble of having to conquer their peninsula by force. So knew perfectly well that the Koreans had not. He had never been forthcoming with Hideyoshi, however, about the Choson court’s adamant opposition to any talk of conquering China; like all the taiko’s underlings, So told him what he wanted to hear and portrayed negative developments in ways that Hideyoshi would find pleasing. In the spring of 1592, therefore, Hideyoshi still harbored hopes that he could take Korea without a fight, and still believed that his vassal So Yoshitoshi was working hard to bring the Koreans to heel. But of course So was not; he knew that war was inevitable. He therefore remained on Tsushima, waiting for Hideyoshi’s patience to run out and for orders to arrive for the invasion to begin.
A final factor contributing to the delay in launching the Korean expedition was Hideyoshi’s own health. During March and April his eyes were causing him particular trouble and prevented him from giving the requisite farewell report to the emperor before departing south for Nagoya. This problem evidently eased at least
In addition to refurbishing his fleet of worm-eaten vessels, Yi, in cooperation with his master shipwright Na Tae-yong, set out to build a new type of battleship that would pack even more punch than the panokson and be even more indestructible. They would call it the kobukson , the “turtle ship.” It would be a startling innovation in naval warfare, a heavy, armored vessel, bristling with cannons pointing in every direction, its top deck completely enclosed under an impenetrable spiked roof resembling a turtle’s shell. Only a few of these turtle ships would be built and see service in the Imjin War. But they would be the scourge of the Japanese navy.
CHAPTER 7
The Final Days
Hideyoshi was off on a hunting excursion at the start of 1592. It was a prolonged affair, perhaps intended to take him away from Kyoto and the bitter memory of his only child, Tsurumatsu, who had died at the age of two in the fall of the previous year. During the five-week sojourn, thousands of birds and animals were shot. Finally, on January 30, the great hunter returned to the capital “as though in triumph,” arriving in a European-style carriage before a gathering of nobility and then displaying his bountiful catch. [151]
For his next adventure Hideyoshi planned to invade Korea and conquer China. He had initially intended for his armies to set sail on the first day of the third month—April 12 by the Western calendar—possibly because he considered the day lucky. He had begun his Kyushu campaign on this day in 1587, and his offensive against Hojo Ujimasa, lord of Odawara, on this day in 1590. But the first soon proved out of the question. Mustering his huge invasion force and getting it positioned at Nagoya and on the forward staging areas of Iki and Tsushima Islands was more time consuming than Hideyoshi and his planners had calculated upon. “D-Day” was thus pushed ahead to the twenty-first of April.
Hideyoshi was also waiting to hear from Tsushima daimyo So Yoshitoshi whether the Koreans had softened their stance and would “lead the way to Ming,” thus sparing him the trouble of having to conquer their peninsula by force. So knew perfectly well that the Koreans had not. He had never been forthcoming with Hideyoshi, however, about the Choson court’s adamant opposition to any talk of conquering China; like all the taiko’s underlings, So told him what he wanted to hear and portrayed negative developments in ways that Hideyoshi would find pleasing. In the spring of 1592, therefore, Hideyoshi still harbored hopes that he could take Korea without a fight, and still believed that his vassal So Yoshitoshi was working hard to bring the Koreans to heel. But of course So was not; he knew that war was inevitable. He therefore remained on Tsushima, waiting for Hideyoshi’s patience to run out and for orders to arrive for the invasion to begin.
A final factor contributing to the delay in launching the Korean expedition was Hideyoshi’s own health. During March and April his eyes were causing him particular trouble and prevented him from giving the requisite farewell report to the emperor before departing south for Nagoya. This problem evidently eased at least
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