Onjo of Baekje

Onjo (?-28, r. 18 BC–AD 28) was the founding monarch of Baekje(백제,百濟), one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. According to the Samguk Sagi(삼국사기,三國史記), he was the ancestor of all Baekje kings.

Background

He was the third son of King Dongmyeong (Jumong), the founder of the northern Korean kingdom Goguryeo. He was the younger half-brother of Yuri, who became Goguryeo's second king, and younger brother of Biryu who built small state in Michuhol.

Founding and Expansion of Baekje

Dongmyeong had three sons: Yuri, Biryu, and Onjo. When Yuri, born from Dongmyeong's previous wife in Dongbuyeo, came to Goguryeo and became the heir to the throne, Biryu and Onjo moved south to found their own kingdoms. According to the Samguk Yusa, Biryu founded his kingdom in Michuhol (미추홀/彌鄒忽), but his didn't last long. Biryu's people joined Sipje after Biryu's death and Onjo renamed it to Baekje. After that, the capital city of Baekje was moved southward from Habuk Wiryeseong because the Malgal were located at the North and Nangnang was located to the East. Both capital cities correspond to land within current Seoul. In 3 BC and 8 BC, the Malgal tribes attacked from the north, and both times, Onjo directly led his armies and won victories over the invaders. In 5 BC, Onjo moved the capital city to a more defensible location south of the Han River, renaming it Hanam Wiryeseong, and sent a messenger to the king of the Mahan confederacy telling him of the recent action.

Baekje

Baekje or Paekche (Hangul: 백제; hanja: 百濟, Korean pronunciation: [pɛktɕ͈e]) (18 BC – 660 AD) was a kingdom located in southwest Korea. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla.

Baekje was founded by Onjo, the third son of Goguryeo's founder Jumong and So Seo-no, at Wiryeseong (present-day southern Seoul). Baekje, like Goguryeo, claimed to succeed Buyeo, a state established in present-day Manchuria around the time of Gojoseon's fall.

Baekje alternately battled and allied with Goguryeo and Silla as the three kingdoms expanded control over the peninsula. At its peak in the 4th century, Baekje controlled most of the western Korean peninsula, as far north as Pyongyang, and may have even held territories in China, such as in Liaoxi, though this is controversial. It became a significant regional sea power, with political and trade relations with China and Japan.

In 660, it was defeated by an alliance of Silla and Chinese Tang Dynasty, submitting to Unified Silla.

Japan

Coordinates: 35°N 136°E / 35°N 136°E / 35; 136

Japan (ⁱ/dʒəˈpæn/; Japanese: 日本 Nippon [nip̚põ̞ɴ] or Nihon [nihõ̞ɴ]; formally 日本国  Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, "State of Japan") is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The kanji that make up Japan's name mean "sun origin", and Japan is often called the "Land of the Rising Sun".

Japan is a stratovolcanic archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku, which make up about ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan's population of 126 million is the world's tenth largest. Approximately 9.1 million people live in Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, which is the sixth largest city proper in the OECD. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the world's largest metropolitan area with over 35 million residents and the world's largest urban agglomeration economy.

Buyeo Pung

Buyeo Pung, known as Fuyo Hōshō (扶余豊璋) in Japan, was one of the sons of King Uija of Baekje. When Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, fell to the alliance of Silla and the ancient Chinese Tang Dynasty in 660, he was a hostage who mortgaged the alliance of Paekche with Japan. "Buyeo" was the family name of the Baekje rulers.

He came back with a Japanese army and Yamato general Abe no Hirafu to revive the country. General Boksin of the Baekje revival forces gave him the title King Pungjang (풍장왕). He joined forces with the Baekje resistance led by general Boksin. In 663, however, the Baekje resistance and Japan lost the Battle of Baekgang to the army of Tang and Silla, and Baekje collapsed. The prince fled to neighboring Goguryeo. When Goguryeo collapsed, he was captured by the Tang army and sent to southern China in exile. His later life is unknown.

His younger brother Zenkō (善光 or 禅広) served Japan and was given the family name Kudara no Konikishi (百濟王; king of Baekje) by the emperor of Japan.

Kudara no Konikishi clan

The Kudara no Konikishi (Japanese: 百済王) was a Baekje-origin clan in Japan whose founder Seon Gwang (善光 or 禅広, pronounced Zenko in Japanese) was a son of the last king of Baekje, King Uija.

Kudara was an uji or clan name that represented their country of origin. Konikishi or Kokishi, which literally means "king", was a special kabane that was given only to the former royal families of Baekje and Goguryeo including Shōna (肖奈) and Koma (高麗) clans.

The founder Seon Gwang came from Baekje to Japan along with his elder brother Hōshō in 643. Even though Hōshō returned home to lead a failed campaign to revive Baekje, Zenkō remained in Japan. The former royal family members were not incorporated into the domestic political system of Japan for some time. They enjoyed privileged treatment because of Baekje's and Japan's shared royal blood line that originated in the Korean peninsula.

They were finally assimilated into Japanese bureaucracy in 691. They were given the name "Kudara no Konikishi" sometime after that. This event has drawn scholarly attention and a couple of theories have been proposed to explain the reason why they were given the peculiar name in that period. Today it is associated with the enforcement of the Asuka Kiyomihara Code in 689 because the law system entailed clarification of their legal status.