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| The origin of the name Imjin may be traced to 1592, when, during the reign of Korean King Seunjo of the Yi Dynasty (1392-1910) the Japanese Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi, with an army of 158,000 men and a navy of 40,000 seasoned sailors, attempted to annex Korea as part of a larger campaign to intimidate China. Throughout history, Japan has viewed Korea as a land bridge to tempting targets in mainland Asia. This period (1592-1598) is known to Western scholars as the Hideyoshi/Imjin War, or, more commonly, as the Hideyoshi Invasion. Koreans call it the Imjinwaeran (Imjin War), and often refer to 1592 as the Imjin year. |
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During the Hideyoshi Invasion, the Japanese army dominated on land, much as the British did during our War of 1812. The Koreans responded with a scorched earth policy. Communications were coordinated through a network of some 623 "beacon hills," the hub of which was on South Mountain in Seoul. Bonfires were lit to keep track of the Japanese ground forces, and the number of fires lit (from one, meaning "all quiet" to five, meaning "the enemy has broken through and we are being overrun") kept the populace and leadership informed. The shrine pictured above, on the south bank of the Imjin between Munsani and Changpari, marks the site of one of these beacon stations. The Koreans won the war through the efforts of their navy. Admiral Yi Sun Shin developed the famous 'Turtle Boat," the world's first ironclad, and defeated the Japanese in a number of battles. Hideyoshi, faced with scorched earth on land and unable to support his army by sea, ordered his forces withdrawn. Admiral Yi is one of the most famous of all Korean heroes. On his sword is etched a poem of his own creation, in two lines of five Chinese characters each:
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Pledge, sea -- fish, dragons move; The above poem may be interpreted in the following words:
I pledge to the sea -- |
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