Katō Yoshiaki

Katō Yoshiaki
加藤 嘉明
Katō Yoshiaki
Lord of Aizu
In office 1627–1631
Preceded by	Gamō Tadasato
Succeeded by	Katō Akinari
Personal details
Born	1563
Died	October 7, 1631(1631-10-07) (aged 67–68)
Nationality	Japanese
Military service
Allegiance	Toyotomi clan Eastern Army Tokugawa shogunate
Unit	Katō clan
Battles/wars	Battle of Shizugatake (1583) Siege of Shimoda (1590) Korean Campaign (1592-1598) Battle of Sekigahara (1600)

Katō Yoshiaki (加藤 嘉明, 1563 – October 7, 1631) was a Japanese daimyō of the late Sengoku period to early Edo period who served as lord of the Aizu Domain. A retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he fought in the battle of Shizugatake in 1583, and soon became known as one of the shichi-hon-yari (七本槍), or Seven Spears of Shizugatake.^[1]

Yoshiaki was one of Hideyoshi's seven most trusted and experienced generals. He was involved in the bitter naval battles at Siege of Shimoda in the Odawara Campaign (1590) and fought off the coast of southern Korean peninsula during the 1st and 2nd Korean Campaign, many of which went in favor of the Korean navy.

In 1598 after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the government of Japan have an accident when seven military generals consisted of Fukushima Masanori, Katō Kiyomasa, Ikeda Terumasa, Kuroda Nagamasa , Asano Yoshinaga, Hosokawa Fujitaka, and Yoshiaki himself plotted a conspiracy to kill Ishida Mitsunari. It was said that the reason of this conspiracy was dissatisfaction of those generals towards Mitsunari as he underreporting the achievements of those generals during the Imjin war against Korea & Chinese empire.^[2] At first, these generals gathered at Kiyomasa's mansion in Osaka Castle, and from there they moved into Mitsunari's mansion. However, Mitsunari learned of this through a report from a servant of Toyotomi Hideyori named Jiemon Kuwajima, and fled to Satake Yoshinobu's mansion together with Shima Sakon and others to hide.^[2] When the seven generals found out that Mitsunari was not in the mansion, they searched the mansions of various feudal lords in Osaka Castle, and Kato's army also approached the Satake residence. Therefore, Mitsunari and his party escaped from the Satake residence and barricaded themselves at Fushimi Castle.^[3] The next day, the seven generals surrounded Fushimi Castle with their soldiers as they knew Mitsunari was hiding there. Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was in charge of political affairs in Fushimi Castle trying to arbitrate the situation. The seven generals requested Ieyasu to hand over Mitsunari, which refused by Ieyasu. Ieyasu then negotiated the promised to let Mitsunari retire and to review the assessment of the Battle of Ulsan Castle in Korea which became the major source of this incident, and had his second son, Yūki Hideyasu, to escort Mitsunari to Sawayama Castle.^[4] Historians viewed this incident were not just simply personal problems between those seven generals against Mitsunari, as it was viewed as an extention of the political rivalries on greater scope between Tokugawa faction and anti-Tokugawa faction which led by Mitsunari, since by this incident, the seven generals including Nagamasa would support Ieyasu later during the conflict of Sekigahara between Eastern army led by Tokugawa Ieyasu and Western army led by Ishida Mitsunari.^[2][5]

In 1600, Katō fought alongside Tokugawa Ieyasu. Following the important victory at Sekigahara in 1600, Tokugawa doubled Katō's fief from 100,000 koku to 200,000. For a time, he was lord of Aizu.

See also

• Katō Kiyomasa
• Siege of Shimoda

Popular culture

• Portrayed by Kim Kang-il in the 2014 film The Admiral: Roaring Currents.
• Portrayed by Kim Sung-kyun in the 2022 film Hansan: Rising Dragon.

References