来目皇子

Prince Kume (?-603) was a prince of the Japanese Imperial family. According to the 8th century historical chronicle the Nihon Shoki, he was a son of Emperor Yomei and a younger brother of Prince Shotoku by the same mother.

In the year 602, he was deputed to lead a Japanese army to invade the Korean peninsula and attack the kingdom of Silla, a powerful rival of the Japanese state's ally Paekche. That spring, he arrived in Tsukushi (northern Kyushu) at the head of a massive (for the time) army of 25,000 men and hundreds of Shinto priests and shrine maidens, who would not fight, but would accompany the army into battle to pray to the gods for victory and bless weapons. Prince Kume made his encampment in the Shima district and began to prepare his invasion fleet.

However that autumn, Prince Kume suddenly fell ill, which was taken to be an inauspicious sign of the gods' disfavor, and the entire invasion was called off. The prince died the following spring, still in Tsukushi. A kofun tumulus said to be the final resting place of Prince Kume can be found in the town of Habikino in Osaka Prefecture.