Konishi Yukinaga (小西 行長, baptized under the Portuguese personal name Agostinho; 1558 – November 6, 1600) was a Japanese daimyō who served Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Known as a Kirishitan daimyo, he is notable for his role as the vanguard of the Japanese invasion of Korea. During that period, he adopted a Korean Christian girl who was named Julia.
Early life
Konishi Yukinaga was the second son of a wealthy Sakai merchant, Konishi Ryūsa. Ryūsa's wife was also baptised under the name of Magdalena. He was later adopted by an Okayama merchant called Totoya Kuroemon. It was unclear when he started becoming a samurai. However, he caught the attention of Okayama daimyo, Ukita Naoie.
There is a theory that his adoption by Okayama merchant was not a coincidence, but was set up by his father, Ryusa. Ryusa had been already in contact with the Oda clan which planned to take over Chūgoku region. The Ukita clan would be the key player in Oda's Chugoku campaign against the Mōri clan, which would be led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. However, the Ukita was by then the ally of the Mōri. Yukinaga, who had a connection with the Oda, served as the liaison between the Ukita clan and the Toyotomi clan, facilitating the Ukita's surrender. Without the help of the Ukita clan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi might be in a big trouble. Hideyoshi valued this help greatly since he considered this period to be the greatest crisis in his life.
The defection of Ukita Naoie allowed the Oda to have a smooth run in Chūgoku region. They could easily quell Araki Murashige's rebellion because the Ukita was preventing the Mōri from helping Araki. Araki Murashige would later get back at the Konishi father and son by accusing them of false crime. They were temporarily confined but managed to prove their innocence in the end.
Service under Hideyoshi
Due to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's lowly background, he didn't have hereditary vassals. Many samurai also refused to serve under him. For this reason, Ryusa had his entire family serve Hideyoshi. Even Yukinaga's mother, Magdalena Wakusa, served Hideyoshi's wife as a senior lady in waiting. Yukinaga, himself, served as Hideyoshi's commander of the sea. Because very few Oda's vassals understood naval transportation and battle, his career advanced rapidly. He brought his fleets to join the flood attack during Siege of Takamatsu and Siege of Ōta Castle. He also commanded a navy during Invasion of Shikoku and Invasion of Kyushu. For his service, he was given the right to use the Toyotomi surname. After he quelled the local uprising in Higo Province, he was awarded a 250.000 koku fief in the southern half of that province.
Yukinaga was against invading other countries, but he participated in a delegation to the Spanish Philippines to offer help in a possible joint invasion of China, and later ended up leading the initial forces under Toyotomi Hideyoshi to invade Korea in the Seven-Year War. Feeling conquering China was impossible, Yukinaga ran a blitzkrieg in Korea to capture the king of Joseon and end the war through diplomacy before the Ming military came. He beat Kato Kiyomasa in the race to Seoul. However, when he arrived at the capital, the king had fled, so the chase continued to Pyongyang.
During his stay in Pyongyang, the Japanese army suffered from a logistics crisis. He sent his brother, Yoshichiro, to persuade Hideyoshi to abandon the Ming conquest and settled with 5 provinces of Joseon through diplomacy. Hideyoshi approved and told the other generals to watch over Yukinaga in Pyongyang.
However, Yukinaga got scammed by his negotiation partner, Shen Weijing (沈惟敬), who demanded 50 days truce. Shen said he would go back to Beijing to get the emperor to approve Yukinaga's request. In reality, he was buying time for the Ming military to settle Ningxia rebellion. To make it worse, the Chinese caught a Korean defector, who was a part of Yukinaga's intelligent network, and tortured him until he confessed. The network was exposed and destroyed. As the result, Yukinaga only knew the Ming military had entered Joseon a few days before the Siege of Pyongyang. In the end, Pyongyang fell and Yukinaga withdrew to Seoul.