Death of Hideyoshi and the Japanese Withdrawal

Also called: Four-route offensive

Toyotomi Hideyoshi died at Fushimi Castle in August 1598. Keeping his death secret, Japan ordered its army home from Korea, and the battle of Noryang was fought on the way out.

Hideyoshi died of illness at Fushimi on the 18th of the eighth month of 1598, entrusting his five-year-old son Hideyori to five regents, among them Tokugawa Ieyasu. They kept his death secret and ordered the army in Korea home.

Meanwhile the allied Joseon and Ming forces divided into four columns in the ninth month and attacked the castles at Ulsan, Sacheon and Suncheon by land and sea. They took none, but the Japanese hurried to embark. When Konishi at Suncheon was blockaded, Shimazu Yoshihiro sailed from Sacheon to rescue him and was met at Noryang by Yi Sun-sin and Chen Lin on the 19th of the eleventh month. So ended the seven-year war; two years later, Tokugawa Ieyasu took power in Japan at Sekigahara.