The Imjin War: Japan's Invasion of Korea

At a glance

• ⚔️1592–1598, two invasions

  The war with Japan, running from the 25th year of Seonjo to 1598.

• 🕔5 p.m., 14 April 1592

  Konishi's First Division reached the waters off Busan with over 700 warships and entered Busanpo the same day.

• 🛡️One commander was ready

  The record states that only Yi Sun-sin, naval commander of Left Jeolla, had prepared for an invasion.

• 🌊Command of the sea

  Hansando and Angolpo gave Joseon complete command of the sea and blocked the Japanese advance into the West Sea.

The scale of the surprise does not by itself explain the early collapse. The encyclopedia sets out the political situation first.

Central politics were in disarray from the four great literati purges running from Yeonsangun to Myeongjong and from the continuous struggle between the Hungu and Sarim factions, and with factional strife intensifying after Seonjo's accession brought the Sarim to power, normal government had become difficult to conduct.

Defences were not entirely ignored. Sin Rip was sent urgently to Gyeonggi and Hwanghae, and Yi Il to Chungcheong and Jeolla, to inspect military installations. But it was already too late, and only resentment among the people grew.

Then comes a single sentence: "Only Yi Sun-sin, naval commander of Left Jeolla, had made his preparations and was ready for the enemy's invasion." Why Yi Sun-sin is recorded as an exceptional figure is already contained in that line.

Konishi's First Division embarked on more than 700 warships on 14 April 1592, left Oura at 8 a.m., reached the waters off Busan at 5 p.m., and entered Busanpo the same day.

The court intended at first to hold the capital. Until news of the defeat at Chungju arrived, the senior ministers' resolve to defend the city did not waver, and officials who favoured the king's evacuation could not press the case against that principle.

The flight was decided in the end. Censors and members of the royal clan begged the king not to abandon the ancestral altars, and Confucian students submitted memorials against it, but nothing could be done. On the same day, at the ministers' request, his second son Gwanghaegun was invested as crown prince, and it was also that day that all officials were ordered into military dress.

Palace signage generally passes over this, and it is the interesting part.

According to the Revised Veritable Records of Seonjo, when the king left Seoul, rioters set fire to the Jangnyewon and the Board of Punishments, which held the slave registers, and at this time Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung and Changgyeonggung all burned down.

But the encyclopedia immediately writes "in contrast to this" and presents a different record from the Seojeong ilgi, the diary of a monk who accompanied Konishi's First Division.

So: that the three palaces burned during the Imjin War is not in dispute; who set the fires is, with the Korean court record and the Japanese campaign diary differing. This is an unresolved question, and no answer is asserted here. When you read "destroyed during the Imjin War" on a palace sign, it is enough to know that this layer sits behind it.

While the land war went badly, something else was happening at sea.

At Hansando the Korean fleet destroyed or captured 7 tiered-deck ships, 28 large ships, 17 medium and 7 small ones, and Wakisaka, who was commanding, barely escaped in a fast boat, with only about ten enemy vessels getting away.

That third sortie destroyed or captured roughly a hundred enemy ships, the greatest result since the war began, and decisively Hansando and Angolpo gave Joseon complete command of the sea and cut off the enemy's advance into the West Sea.

The three great victories of the Imjin War are recorded as Kim Si-min's battle at Jinju, Yi Sun-sin's battle at Hansando, and the great victory won by Gwon Yul together with the monk-general Cheoyeong and others.

The later war had a severe reversal. Yi Sun-sin, who had been holding the southern coast with Hansando as his headquarters, was imprisoned on false charges and replaced by Won Gyun; Won Gyun's unskilled tactics led to his defeat and death, and Yi Eok-gi, Choe Ho and Bae Heung-nip also fell, so the defences Yi Sun-sin had built at Hansando collapsed overnight. Then Yi Sun-sin, reinstated as commander, won a great victory at Myeongnyang on the 16th day of the ninth month, blocking the Japanese advance westward.

This war's traces are in the palaces more than at any battlefield.

Changdeokgung is the clearest case. After all the palaces burned, Changdeokgung was the first to be rebuilt, and as a result the palace Joseon's kings actually lived in for centuries was Changdeokgung rather than Gyeongbokgung, the formal principal palace. That this war is why Changdeokgung is now presented as "the most Korean of the palaces" is worth carrying with you.

Gyeongbokgung is the evidence on the other side. It stood empty for a long time and was rebuilt in the nineteenth century, so what you see is a nineteenth-century palace on a fourteenth-century plan.

Reconstruction dates and visiting details for each palace are on its own page, linked below.

Places connected to the Imjin War

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  Changdeokgung Palace

  The first palace rebuilt after the war, and the one Joseon's kings then actually used for centuries.

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  Gyeongbokgung Palace

  Left empty for a long time and rebuilt in the nineteenth century — a 19th-century palace on a 14th-century plan.

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  Changgyeonggung Palace

  Formed the Eastern Palace with Changdeokgung, and was rebuilt beside it after the war.

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  Jongmyo Shrine

  Destroyed during the war and subsequently rebuilt.

Frequently asked questions