A ferocious fighter and often ruthless, Katô Kiyomasa was a warrior, nothing more, nothing less. He wrote to his followers later in his life that poetry and dancing were shameful pastimes for a samurai, and ordered anyone who found himself engaged in the latter to commit suicide. His cruelty and love of combat (for sport, he hunted tigers with a spear in Korea) earned him the nickname Kishokan, or, 'Devil General'. | A ferocious fighter and often ruthless, Katô Kiyomasa was a warrior, nothing more, nothing less. He wrote to his followers later in his life that poetry and dancing were shameful pastimes for a samurai, and ordered anyone who found himself engaged in the latter to commit suicide. His cruelty and love of combat (for sport, he hunted tigers with a spear in Korea) earned him the nickname Kishokan, or, 'Devil General'. |