1592 – 1598
Toyotomi Hideyoshi had just unified Japan and needed somewhere to point 158,000 veteran soldiers. He chose Korea, as the road to Ming China. His armies took Seoul in three weeks and Pyongyang in two months — and then a Korean admiral nobody had heard of destroyed the fleet carrying their food, and the largest war in the world for the next three centuries ground into six years of siege, famine, and slaughter that ended exactly where it began.
Chapter-by-chapter narrative with maps, primary sources, and key events.
Explore battles on a live map with a timeline slider and territory overlays.
Deep-dive into every major engagement — commanders, casualties, significance.
Biographical flip cards with real portraits, facts, and full biography pages.
Trace each figure's full life journey — birth, education, battles, and death — on a live map.
Scroll-driven visualization of casualties — each dot a thousand lives.
Weapons, war machines, and the military innovations that defined how this conflict was fought.
Cause-and-effect chains tracing the war's long shadow on history.
War crimes, massacres, and the darkest chapters of this conflict — documented for history.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi had just unified Japan and needed somewhere to point 158,000 veteran soldiers. He chose Korea, as the road to Ming China. His armies took Seoul in three weeks and Pyongyang in two months — and then a Korean admiral nobody had heard of destroyed the fleet carrying their food, and the largest war in the world for the next three centuries ground into six years of siege, famine, and slaughter that ended exactly where it began.
The Imjin War was fought from 1592 to 1598.
The Imjin War was fought between Toyotomi Japan and Joseon Korea & Ming China.
An estimated 1,260,000 people died in The Imjin War, including roughly 260,000 military and 1,000,000 civilian deaths. Figures are scholarly estimates and vary by source.
Major engagements included The Second Siege of Jinju, Siege of Ulsan, The Recapture of Pyongyang, and Battle of Noryang.