King Seong of Baekje

King Seong ruled Baekje from 523 to 554, during the Three Kingdoms period of the history of the Korean Peninsula. He was known as a great patron of Buddhism, and built many temples. Indeed, in 528 Baekje officially adopted Buddhism as its state religion. He is credited with having sent a mission in 538 from Baekje to Japan that brought an image of Shakyamuni and several sutras to the Japanese court. This has traditionally been considered the official introduction of Buddhism to Japan.

553 saw the culmination of a long Baekje campaign to regain the Han River valley — lost to Goguryeo almost eighty years earlier in 475 — with victories in a series of costly assaults on Goguryeo fortifications. Silla troops, however, arriving on the pretense of offering assistance, attacked the exhausted Baekje army and took possession of the entire Han River valley. Incensed by this betrayal, the following year King Seong launched a retaliatory strike against Silla's western border, but was killed in the resulting melée.