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Masakado's head mound: appeasing a vengeful spirit
Located in the heart of Tōkyō's buzzing business district of Ōtemachi, just a stone's throw away from the Imperial Palace, lies a speck of land that has remained largely untouched for centuries. For whenever it had been touched tragedy would befall those who had angered the spirit of Japan's "first samurai",
Taira no Masakado. Kubizuka (首塚, "head mound") is a monument to Masakado's head: after he had lost it in the Battle of Kojima in 940 his cranium had been on display in Kyōto whence it is said to have taken a flight back to
Kantō, in a desperate quest to find its body. Tired, it fell back to earth close to a small fishing village called Shibasaki, modern-day Chiyoda Ward in Tōkyō. Villagers buried it there under a heavy tomb stone to hinder it from...