Many other workers became ill or were injured. Reportedly fourteen officials of the ministry, including the finance minister himself, died within a short period. This proved to be an unfortunate decision. In rebuilding, the ministry destroyed the tombs and erected a temporary structure on the site. In the Meiji era, the Finance Ministry constructed their building nearby, but it burned down in the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. Later during the Edo era, Kanda Myojin was moved to a new site, but the tombs were left behind. The ghost of a haggard-looking samurai appeared regularly until special prayers offered by the terrified villagers seemed to put the spirit to rest. Some ten years later the mound began to glow and shake violently. The head dropped to Shibazaki Village, where the villagers picked it up and buried it beneath a mound in Kanda Myojin Shrine. On the way, it was shot down by an arrow fired by a monk at Atsuta Shrine, which today houses one of Japan’s three sacred treasures. One night, the head, enveloped in a glowing light, is believed to have taken off and flown toward Taira no Masakado’s home in what is now Ibaraki Prefecture. In fact, people said it looked the same as when he was alive, except that now the eyes were especially fierce and the mouth grimacing even more horribly in death. But three months later the head was unchanged. In 939, planning to set up an independent state, Taira no Masakado named an alternative capital in Sashima, in what is now Chiba Prefecture, and declared himself the “New Emperor.” His rebellion, however, was short-lived the following year, he was killed by Taira no Sadamori and Fujiwara no Hidesato.Īs the legend goes, he died from an arrow wound, after which his body was beheaded and the head displayed in Kyoto as a warning for other would-be rebels. Toward the end of the eighth century, Japan’s capital was moved from Nara to Kyoto, which remained the center of government until the late twelfth century. It is said to mark the burial place of the head of Taira no Masakado, a disgruntled samurai who lived during the Heian period, which takes its name from Heiankyo, the old name for Kyoto.
For the businessmen who work in the vicinity, however, this monument is a solemn reminder that unhappy spirits have the power to disturb. Just beside the hundred-meter-tall building that houses the headquarters of the Mitsui Trading Company stands a monument so unobtrusive that most people walk by without giving it a second glance. Today’s Tokyo may be a global economic center, but ghosts and other such phenomena are very much a part of everyday life, found even in the most contemporary of places.Ī convincing example is the business district of Otemachi, now known internationally as an important hub of Japan’s banking and trading activities. A legacy of East Asian supernatural beliefs remains. Nevertheless, under the dazzle of commerce and industry beats a primitive heart still attuned to the world of shadows. Visitors impressed by this almost ceaseless kaleidoscope of glare and action seldom encounter what lies just beneath the frenetic East meets West facade. Old Edo has long since burgeoned into the megalopolis that is modern Tokyo, a sprawling mass of glass, steel, ferroconcrete, and tarmac crammed into two thousand square kilometers.
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