Abe no Hirafu

• seventh century

Military leader of the Asuka period. He was dispatched in 658 by Empress Saimei at the head of a force of 180 ships to proceed north and attack the Ezo people, who held power in northern Japan. The following year he is said to have crossed over to the China mainland to attack the Mishihase, or Suchen, state. This expedition represents the earliest recorded attempt by the Yamato court to extend control over the Tohoku and Hokkaido regions. It is possible that the term Mishihase here does not refer to the actual Tungusic state on the China mainland whose name is read Mishihase in Japanese but to some group in Hokkaido.

In 662, when the state of Paekche on the Korean Peninsula was threatened with extinction by the combined forces of Silla and T'ang China, Abe no Hirafu was sent at the head of a Japanese relief force to attack Silla, but he was defeated in the battle with the T'ang army in 663 at a place in Korea called Paek Ch'on River (Haku River). As a result, all vestiges of Japanese control on the Korean peninsula were brought to an end.

Text taken from Seiichi Iwao's Biographical Dictionary of Japanese History