Tomb of Akechi Mitsuhide 明智光秀墓所あけちみつひでぼしょ

Akechi Mitsuhide bosho

The monument to Akechi Mitsuhide (1528 – 1582) is situated a few steps off the pathway to the Inner Sanctuary. While it is one of many monuments to famous military figures at Oku-no-in, this one is of particular fascination because of a purported curse that causes a large crack to appear on one of its stones despite several attempts to replace and repair it.

Mitsuhide served as one of Oda Nobunaga’s (1534 – 1582 ) most important generals during his campaign to unify Japan in the 16th century. He was instrumental in Nobunaga’s siege of the Tendai monastery of Mt. Hiei in 1571 – a brutal affair that resulted in the slaughter of 20,000 people, including priests, women and children.

In 1582, Mitsuhide turned against his former lord and carried out the attack on Kyoto’s Honnoji Temple that forced Nobunaga to commit ritual suicide. Mitsuhide himself was then pursued and killed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536 -1598) a month later.

Despite having rid Japan of the "Devil King" Nobunaga, Mitsuhide’s reputation as his lord’s treacherous assassin looms large in the popular imagination of the Japanese. For this reason, perhaps, his name appears in blood-red letters on his tombstone.

Detail showing the crack in tomb of Akechi Mitsuhide — Detail showing the crack.

The section that consistently cracks is the spherical stone representing water.

This is taken as indubitable proof that Mitsuhide's monument is, indeed, cursed by the ghost of Nobunaga.

As the temple where he was trapped was engulfed by flames, what else would Nobunaga have cried out for if not water?

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