Kiyomasa Kato once held a very important place in history, and he was Hideyoshi's most loyal supporter, but he joined another camp after Hideyoshi's death. Kato Kiyoshi is brave and capable in Japan, but he slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people in Korea, such a person sometimes makes many people unable to see through, he always said that he was loyal to the Toyotomi family, but in the end he made the Toyotomi clan more rapidly perish. Many people are very curious about the ending of Kato Kiyomasa, and want to know what kind of ending such a person will have, so what is the ending of Kato Kiyomasa?
Photo by Kiyomasa Kato
Since the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, due to personal grudges and being blinded by Ieyasu, Kato Kiyomasa left the Toyotomi clan and joined Ieyasu's camp as a member of the Eastern Army. Later, after the Battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu finally sat on the throne that everyone in the world was vying for, and the power of the Toyotomi clan began to decrease sharply, but Ieyasu was still very jealous of Hideyoshi and others at this time. Later, Ieyasu showed his intention to murder Hideyoshi, which made Kato Kiyomasa more vigilant.
After that, In order to protect Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Kato Kiyomasa began to accompany Hideyoshi all day long, and only wanted to protect Toyotomi Hideyoshi's safety under strict defense, and even rearranged the battle flag that Hideyoshi had given him, just like the meaning of not forgetting the original owner. However, on the way back to Kumamoto with Hideyoshi, Kato Kiyomasa began to fall ill and became more and more serious, and when Hideyoshi returned for three months, Kato Kiyomasa could not hold on any longer, and finally died in Kumamoto Kato Kiyomasa due to illness that could not be treated, and even before his death he still insisted on his loyalty to the Toyotomi clan.
What is the origin of the ancient Japanese warlord Kato Kiyomasa and Korea?
Anyone who knows anything about the War in Japan must know that during Hideyoshi's reign, he had conquered Korea and wanted to invade China by controlling It. The Ming Dynasty also sent reinforcements to support Korea, and the war did not really end until Hideyoshi's death. Many of the Japanese generals sent at that time were very famous figures, and Kato Kiyomasa also joined the war. The character of Kato Kiyomasa is still relatively outstanding in history, but Kato Kiyoyoshi is like a different person in the Korean War, so how did Kato Kiyoyoshi perform in the Korean War?
Statue of Kiyomasa Kato
In fact, according to some information, it can be seen that Kato Kiyo's performance in Korea is very different from when he was in Japan, and it can be said that one of the most resented figures of the Korean people is Kato Kiyomasa. Among all the Japanese troops that invaded Korea at that time, Kato Kiyomasa's team was the worst discipline and the worst always, he led the Japanese Second Army, but he was always behind Governor Konishi, so although the march was very fast, but did not get any results, Kato Kiyomasa was angry, so the Korean people became the object of his anger.
In the process of invading Korea, Kato Kiyomasa would be a great disaster in every place, not only did he allow his men to slaughter the inhabitants, but he himself would also burn and loot, slaughtering tens of thousands of Korean residents at any moment. It can be said that everything he did was a very cruel thing. In the case of Jinju, there were more than 60,000 local residents, and almost all of them were killed in a day, and according to statistics, Kato Kiyomasa killed more than 100,000 North Korean residents. It is precisely because of his behavior that the North Korean people are indignant.
Historical evaluation of Kiyomasa Kato during the Azuchi-Momoyama period in Japan
Kiyoya Kato was a very famous and outstanding general in Japan, who performed many meritorious deeds under Hideyoshi, and also took the prince of Korea captive during the Korean War, and served as a pioneer officer. Later, he was named daimyō in Ieyasu's camp for his military exploits, but later returned to the Toyotomi family, and on the surface it seems that Kato Kiyomasa has been wavering, so when people talk about the evaluation of Kato Kiyomasa, they will talk about betrayers, but this is not the case, so what do people think of Kato Kiyomasa?
Kato Kiyomasa's loyalty to Hideyoshi is undeniable, as it is well known, but this changed completely after Hideyoshi's death, as a feud between privates Kato Kiyomasa left Hideyoshi's camp and began to join Ieyasu's Eastern Army. Many people think that this is an act of betrayal, but this is not the case, and in the final crisis moment, Kato Kiyomasa returned to the Toyotomi clan camp again in order to protect Hideyoshi, which shows that he had only done this because of his personal grudge and was blinded by Ieyasu.
Others, who judge Kato Kiyomasa, think he was brutal because he killed many Koreans in the Battle of Korea. After entering Korea, he indulged his soldiers to slaughter the people everywhere, and even he himself joined the burning and looting, causing great harm to the Korean people, and hundreds of thousands of people died at their hands. However, many Japanese histories have not commented on this, and it can be said that this incident was a disaster for Korea, but it was a Japanese achievement. In short, Kato Kiyoshi is irreplaceable in the hearts of the people of his territory.