Gwisil Jipsa, was the son of Gwisil Boksin, a general of Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. The Gwisil clan was a collateral branch of the royal family, the Buyeo clan. He settled in Japan after the fall of the kingdom and death of his father where he became a member of the Japanese court where they called him Kishitsu Shushi after the Japanese reading of his name.
Before Jipsa moved to Japan he was a Dalsol in Baekje's 16 rank system. When Paekche fell in 660 his father tried to save the nation by raising an army and proclaiming Buyeo Pung, the son of the last recognized king of Baekje, King Uija, as the next king under the name King Pungjang. In 663, the Silla–Tang alliance counterattacked, and besieged the restoration movement at the fortress of Juryu Castle. Boksin was captured and then executed; his head was salted and pickled.
Japan
Three years after the death of his father, the Baekje army was destroyed at the Battle of Baekgang and Gwisil Jipsa came and settled in Japan with his family during the second year of Emperor Tenji's reign. In February, 665, Naka no Ōe no Miko granted the rank of "Lower Shokin" upon Jipsa and he became Chief of the Department of Education. He settled in Gamō-gun, Omi Province. Nihon Shoki:
".... The Minister Yeo Jasin, the Minister Gwisil Jipsa, and others, men and women, to the number of over 700 persons, were removed and settled in the district of Kamafu in the province of Afumi ." Nihongi further records that the rank of Upper Daikin was conferred on the Baekje Minister Yeo Jasin and on Sataek Somyeong ; the rank of Lower on Gwisil Jipsa ; and the rank of Lower Daisen on the Dalsol Gongna Jinsu,... on Kim-su,... on Heo Sol-mo, and on Kak Pyeongmu. The rank Lower was conferred on the other Dalsol, more than fifty persons in all .”
Jipsa became ancestor of several Japanese clans including the Kikuchi clan, a powerful family of Higo Province, Kyushu. He also brought a lot of knowledge from the continent that helped the Japanese greatly. Jipsa had an older brother named Gwisil Jipsin who is mentioned only once in the Japanaese Nihon Shoki.
