Battle of Noryang

Battle of Noryang
Part of the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598)

Part of a Naval Battle Scroll from the Imjin War.
Date16 December 1598 (Gregorian Calendar)
Keichō 3, 19th day of 11 month (Lunar calendar)
Location
Noryang Strait, off the coast of Namhae Island
Result

Joseon and Ming Empire victory[1][2]

Belligerents
Japan Joseon
Ming Empire
Commanders and leaders
Japan
Main:
Konishi Yukinaga
Reinforcement:
Shimazu Yoshihiro
Tachibana Muneshige[3]
Wakizaka Yasuharu
So Yoshitoshi
Takahashi Naotugu
Kobayakawa Hidekane
Tsukushi Hirokado
Terazawa Hirotaka
Yi Sun-sin 
Yi Yeong-nam 
Chen Lin
Chen Kan
Deng Zilong 
Strength
300 ships[4]
500 ships (Korean sources)

148 ships

  • Joseon: 85 warships[5]
  • Ming: 63 warships[6]
    • 6 large junks
    • 57 small junks
Casualties and losses
200 ships sunk
100 ships captured
500 soldiers beheaded
100+ soldiers captured
13,000 soldiers killed[7]
200 ships[4]
500 soldiers and sailors
Battle of Noryang
Chinese name
Chinese露梁海战
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinLu liang hai zhan
Korean name
Hangul노량해전
Hanja露梁海戰
Transcriptions
Revised RomanizationNoryang Haejeon
McCune–ReischauerNoryang Haejŏn
Japanese name
Kanji露梁海戦
Transcriptions
RomanizationRoryō kaisen

The Battle of Noryang, the last major battle of the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598), was fought between the Japanese navy and the combined fleets of the Joseon Kingdom and the Ming dynasty. It took place in the early morning of 16 December (19 November in the Lunar calendar) 1598 and ended past dawn.

The allied force of about 150 Joseon and Ming Chinese ships, led by admirals Yi Sun-sin and Chen Lin, attacked and either destroyed or captured more than half of the 500 Japanese ships commanded by Shimazu Yoshihiro, who was attempting to link-up with Konishi Yukinaga. The battered survivors of Shimazu's fleet limped back to Busan and a few days later, left for Japan. At the height of the battle, Yi was hit by a bullet from an arquebus and died shortly thereafter. Chen Lin reported the news back to the Wanli Emperor, and since then, Chen and Yi were celebrated as national heroes.

  1. ^ Swope 2009, p. 275.
  2. ^ Hawley 2005, p. 541.
  3. ^ War history of Japan: Chousen-eki (1924). Staff headquarters of Imperial Japanese army. ISBN 4-19-890265-8
  4. ^ a b Hawley 2005, p. 538.
  5. ^ Hawley 2014, p. 554.
  6. ^ Hawley 2014, p. 555.
  7. ^ https://sillok.history.go.kr/popup/viewer.do?id=kna_13203007_001&type=view&reSearchWords=&reSearchWords_ime= [bare URL]