[Hybrid Lecture]

Hell on earth: a Japanese monk’s eye-witness account of Hideyoshi’s invasions of Korea, 1597-1598

SPEAKER: Marshall Craig
DATE:  Tuesday. June 14, 2022. 7:30PM (Seoul)
ADMISSION (Online & In-person): Free for Members; W10,000 for Non-members

Summary:
There has been perhaps no more devastating period for Korea than the invasions ordered by Japanese leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi between 1592 and 1598. The ensuing war was a watershed in the peninsula’s recent history, and remains prominent in the national consciousness of Koreans today.
Many eyewitnesses to the war left us accounts of what it was like to live through this tumultuous period, and one stands out from the rest: the Japanese monk Keinen was reluctantly drafted to join the invasion, and offers a critical and insightful perspective on the invasion from the Japanese side. Through his diary, we can glimpse what the war may have meant for the Japanese who took part – from the samurai lords to the peasant conscript. We also see how the Japanese worldview was a world apart from that of their opponents on the battlefield: the Koreans and Chinese.

Lecturer Bio:
Marshall Craig completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford. He taught East Asian history and languages at the universities of Oxford and London before working as a policy advisor to the UK government. He is currently a visiting researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
The lecture is based on his recent book China, Korea, and Japan at War, 1592-1598: Eyewitness Accounts (Routledge, 2020).

VENUE: Online Zoom & In-person 

• In-Person:  First floor of (historic) Korea Christian Building (한국기독교회관), Daehak-no 19, Jongno-gu, Seoul (a short walk from Exit 2 of Jongno-5-ga Station (Line 1))  * No RSVP required.

• Online Zoom: Please RSVP to receive the link by  June 13 (Monday)

• • ☞ Payment to be remitted to the following account:
  •           – SHINHAN BANK #100-026-383501 (왕립아세아학회, RAS-KB)
  •           – PAYPAL: https://paypal.me/RASKorea
  •           * Free for Members of RAS Korea and RAS Associates (Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and London)