It is said, by a trustworthy writer, that 214,752 human bodies were decapitated to furnish the ghastly material for the “ear-tomb” mound in Kiōto. Ogawuchi reckons the number of Corean heads gathered for mutilation at 185,738, and of Chinese at 29,014; all of which were despoiled of ears or noses. It is probable that 50,000 Japanese, victims of wounds or disease, left their bones in Corea.
Thus ended one of the most needless, unprovoked, cruel, and desolating wars that ever cursed Corea, and from which it has taken her over two centuries to recover. [[145]]
CHAPTER XX.
CHANGES AFTER THE INVASION.
The war over, and peace again in the land, the fugitives returned to their homes and the farmers to their fields. The whole country was desolate, the scars of war were everywhere visible, and the curse of poverty was universal. From the king and court, in the royal city, of which fire had left little but ashes, and of which war and famine had spared few inhabitants, to the peasant, who lived on berries and roots until his scanty seed rose above the ground and slowly ripened, all now suffered the woful want which the war had bred. Kind nature, however, ceased not her bountiful stores, and from the ever-ready and ever-full treasuries of the ocean, fed the stricken land.
The war was a fruitful cause of national changes in Corean customs and institutions. The first was the more thorough organization of the military, the rebuilding and strengthening of old castles, and the erection of new ones; though, like most measures of the government, the proposed reforms were never properly carried out. The coasts were guarded with fresh vigilance. Upon one of the Corean commanders, who had been many times successful against the Japanese, a new title and office was created, and the coast defence of the three southern provinces was committed to him. This title was subsequently conferred upon three officials whose headquarters were at points in Kiung-sang. Among the literary fruits of the leisure now afforded was the narrative, in Chinese, of the events leading to the war with the Japanese, written by a high dignitary of the court, and covering the period from about 1586 to 1598. This is, perhaps, the only book reprinted in Japan, which gives the Corean side of the war. In his preface the excessively modest author states that he writes the book “because men ought to look at the present in the mirror of the past.” The Chinese style of this writer is difficult for an ordinary Japanese to read. The book (Chōhitsuroku) contains a curious map of the eight provinces. [[146]]
In Japan the energies of the returned warriors were fully employed at home after their withdrawal from Corea. The adherents of Taikō and those of Iyéyasŭ, the rising man, came to blows, and at the great battle of Sékigahara, in October, 1600, Iyéyasŭ crushed his foes. Many of the heroes of the peninsular campaign fell on the field; or, as beaten men, disembowelled themselves, according to the Japanese code of honor.
Konishi, being a Christian, and unable, from conscientious scruples, to commit suicide by hara kiri, was decapitated. The humbled spirit and turbulent wrath of Satsuma were appeased, and given a valve of escape in the permission accorded them to make definite conquest of Riu Kiu. This was done by a well-planned and vigorously executed expedition in 1609, by which the little archipelago was made an integral part of the Japanese empire. When retiring from Chō-sen, in 1597, the daimiō and general Nabéshima requited himself for the possible loss of further military glory, by bringing over and settling in Satsuma a colony of Corean potters. He builded better than he knew, for in founding these industries in his own domain, he became the prime author of that delight of the æsthetic world, “old Satsuma faïence.” Other daimiōs, in whose domains were potteries, likewise transported skilled workers in clay, who afterward brought fame and money to their masters. On the other hand, Iyéyasŭ sent back the Corean prisoners in Japan to their own homes.
The spoil brought back from the peninsular campaign—weapons, flags, brocades, porcelains, carvings, pictures, and manuscripts was duly deposited, with certifying documents, in temples and storehouses, or garnished the home of the veterans for the benefit of posterity. Some, with a literary turn, employed their leisure in writing out their notes and journals, several of which have survived the wreck of time. Some, under an artistic impulse, had made valuable sketches of cities, scenery, battle-fields, and castles, which they now finished. A few of the victors shore off their queues and hair, and became monks. Others, with perhaps equal piety, hung up the arrow-pierced helmet, or corslet slashed by Chinese sabre, as ex-voto at the local shrines. The writer can bear personal witness to the interest which many of these authentic relics inspired in him while engaged in their study. In 1878 a large collection of various relics of the Corean war of 1592–1597 came into the possession of the mikado’s government in Tōkiō, from the heirs or descendants of the veterans of Taikō. In [[147]]Kiōto, besides the Ear-monument, the Hall of the Founder, in one of the great Buddhist temples, rebuilt by the widow of Taikō, was ceiled with the choice wood of the war junk built for the hero.