Eben ［恵便］ (n.d.) (; Kor Hyepyŏn): A priest of Koguryŏ, a state on the Korean Peninsula, who lived during the sixth century. Eben is his Japanese name. He went to Japan as a priest, but because Buddhism had not spread there yet, he lived there as a layman. In 584 two statues, one of Bodhisattva Maitreya and the other of Shakyamuni Buddha, were brought from another Korean state, Paekche, to Japan. The court official Soga no Umako enshrined the images and ordered Shiba Tatsuto, a naturalized Japanese subject originally from China, to look for a Buddhist priest. He found Eben, who then resumed priestly life under Soga’s patronage.