Konishi Yukinaga

• Birth: 1560?
• Death: 1600
• Titles: Settsu no kami, Takumi no suke
• Distinction: Ukita, Toyotomi retainer
• Son: Konishi Yoshitomo

Yukinaga is thought to have been the son of a Sakai merchant. He came to serve the Ukita of Bizen province and first met Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the latter's Chugoku Campaign (1577-1582) while acting as a Ukita negotiator. Hideyoshi was impressed with Yukinaga and convinced him to join his own forces. Following the Kyushu Campaign in 1587, Yukinaga was given Udo castle and half of Higo province (worth some 240,000 koku), with the other half going to Kato Kiyomasa. The two neighbors came to be at odds over the issue of Christianity, which Yukinaga embraced and which Kiyomasa persecuted within his half of Higo. Yukinaga was named one of the chief commanders of the 1st Korean Campaign (along with his rival Kato Kiyomasa) in 1592, and led an army from Pusan as far as P'yongyang before being forced back by Chinese reinforcements and poor supplies. He favored peace in Korea, another point on which he differed with Kato Kiyomasa, and during the 2nd Korean Campaign (1597-98) assisted in negotiations. Following the death of Hideyoshi in 1598, Konishi gravitated into Ishida Mitsunari's camp and supported him against Tokugawa Ieyasu. He led 4,000 men to the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), where his troops would see heavy fighting. Following the defeat of the 'western' army, Yukinaga was captured and exectued in Kyoto along with Ishida Mitsunari and Ankokuji Ekei. He was a Christian (and known in this capacity as Dom Agostinho) and had therefore decided not to commit suicide following Sekigahara.

References

• Initial text from Sengoku Biographical Dictionary (Samurai-Archives.com) FWSeal & CEWest, 2005