With Toyotomi Hideyoshi's death in 1598, limited progress on land, and continued disruption of supply lines by the Joseon Navy, the Japanese forces in Korea were ordered to withdraw back to Japan by the new governing Council of Five Elders.

[55] It is also suggested that Hideyoshi planned an invasion of China to fulfill the dreams of his late lord, Oda Nobunaga,[56] and to mitigate the possible threat of civil disorder or rebellion posed by the large number of now-idle samurai and soldiers in unified Japan.

Hideyoshi had, in a series of wars, conquered Japan and now wanted to turn to bigger things, noting that he spoke not only of his desire to "slash his way" into Korea to invade China, but also the Philippines, and India.

[96] Katō's battle standard was a white pennant which carried a message alleged to have been written by Nichiren himself reading Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō ("Hail to the Lotus of the Divine Law").

When traders from the Portuguese Empire arrived in Japan and introduced arquebuses and muskets, the Japanese warlords were quick to adapt to this disruptive innovation, producing en masse the tanegashima matchlock.

[124] One example was a policy that stated that local officers could not individually respond to a foreign invasion outside of their jurisdiction until a higher ranking general, appointed by the king's court, arrived with a newly mobilized army.

Although it was [partly] due to there having been a century of peace and the people not being familiar with warfare that this happened, it was really because the Japanese had the use of muskets that could reach beyond several hundred paces, that always pierced what they struck, that came like the wind and the hail, and with which bows and arrows could not compare.

[161] In the meantime, desperate Korean envoys had been sent to the Forbidden City in Beijing to ask the Wanli Emperor to protect his loyal tributaries in Korea by sending an army to drive out the Japanese.

[192] However, Yi Sun-sin, who held the post of the Left Naval Commander[n 3] of the Jeolla Province (which covers the western waters of Korea), successfully destroyed the Japanese ships transporting troops and supplies.

[192] When the Japanese troops landed at the port of Busan, Bak (also spelled Park) Hong, the Left Naval Commander of Gyeongsang Province, destroyed his entire fleet, his base, and all armaments and provisions, and fled.

[202][205] In his report to King Seonjo, Admiral Yi wrote: "Previously, foreseeing the Japanese invasion, I had a turtle ship made...with a dragon's head, from whose mouth we could fire cannons, and with iron spikes on its back to pierce the enemy's feet when they tried to board.

The feigned retreat worked, with the Japanese following the Koreans to the open sea, and Yi wrote: Then our ships suddenly enveloped the enemy craft from the four directions, attacking them from both flanks at full speed.

[241] Ankokuji Ekei, a former Buddhist monk made into a general due to his role in the negotiations between Mōri Terumoto and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, led the units of the Sixth Division charged with the invasion of Jeolla Province.

[246] Hyujeong ended his appeal with a call for monks who were able-bodied to "put on the armor of mercy of Bodhisattvas, hold in hand the treasured sword to fell the devil, wield the lightning bolt of the Eight Deities, and come forward!".

[246] At least 8,000 monks responded to Hyujeong's call, some out of a sense of Korean patriotism and others motivated by a desire to improve the status of Buddhism, which suffered discrimination from a Sinophile court intent upon promoting Confucianism.

[246] In Chungcheong Province, the abbot Yeonggyu proved to be an active guerrilla leader and together with the Righteous Army of 1,100 commanded by Jo Heon attacked and defeated the Japanese at the Battle of Cheongju on 6 September 1592.

[248] Feeling obligated to come to Jo's aid, the abbot Yeonggyu now led his warrior monks against Kobayakawa at the third battle of Geumsan, who likewise suffered the same fate—"total annihilation".

[256][257] The local governor at Liaodong eventually acted upon King Seonjo's request for aid following the capture of Pyongyang by sending a small force of 5,000 soldiers led by Zu Chengxun.

[266] The Korean warrior monks, led by Abbot Hyujeong, attacked the headquarters of Konishi Yuninaga on Moranbong, coming under heavy Japanese arquebus fire, taking hundreds of dead, but they persevered.

[250] Later that same day, the Chinese under Wu Weizhong joined the attack, and with a real danger that Konishi would be cut off from the rest of his army, So Yoshitoshi led a counterattack that rescued the Japanese forces from Moranbong.

Gwon Yul quickly advanced northwards, retaking Suwon and then swung north toward the fortress Haengjusanseong, a wooden stockade on a cliff over the Han River, where he would wait for Chinese reinforcements.

[275] Bolstered by the victory at the Battle of Byeokjegwan, Katō Kiyomasa and his army of 30,000 men advanced to the south of Hanseong to attack Haengjusanseong, an impressive mountain fortress that overlooked the surrounding area.

Failing to gain a foothold during Katō Kiyomasa's Chinese campaign, and the near complete withdrawal of the Japanese forces during the first invasion, had established that the Korean peninsula was the more prudent and realistic objective.

Upon the start of the second invasion, the Ming Emperor was furious about the entire debacle of the peace talks and turned his wrath on many of its chief supporters; particularly Shi Xing, the Minister of War, who was removed from his position and jailed (he died several years later, in prison).

[314] Late one night, Ma Gui decided to order a general organized retreat of the allied forces, but soon confusion set in, and matters were further complicated by heavy rainfall and harassing attacks by the Japanese.

Noting the narrow geography of the area, Ming general Chen Lin, who led Deng Zilong and Yi Sun-sin,[323] made a surprise attack against the Japanese fleet, under the cover of darkness on 16 December 1598, using cannon and fire arrows.

[326] Realizing that the Shogunate would never agree to such a request, Sō Yoshitoshi sent a forged letter and a group of criminals instead; the great need to expel the Ming soldiers pushed Joseon into accepting and to send an emissary in 1608.

Falling tax revenues, troop desertions, a flow of foreign silver which brought unexpected problems in the Chinese economy, poor granary supervision and harsh weather eventually culminated in the collapse of the Ming Dynasty.

[335] However, the sinocentric tributary system that the Ming had defended continued to be maintained by the Qing, and ultimately, the war resulted in a maintenance of the status quo—with the re-establishment of trade and the normalization of relations between all three parties.

[326] After the immediate Japanese military threat was neutralized, Turnbull states that the Joseon desire for the Ming armies to quickly withdraw from Korean territory was a contributing factor to the pace of the eventual peace resolution.