Tomb of Akechi Mitsuhide’s Torso

On June 2, 1582, Akechi Mitsuhide suddenly attacked his master, Oda Nobunaga, who was staying at the Honno-ji temple in Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto, forcing Nobunaga to perform harakiri. However, shortly after, on June 13, Mitsuhide himself was defeated at Yamazaki (Mt. Tennozan) by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had marched back from Bicchu Takamatsu Castle, in what is now Okayama City.
Mitsuhide fled towards Sakamoto Castle in Omi (now Shiga Prefecture). However, according to one account, he was attacked by peasants in a bamboo thicket (nicknamed “Akechi’s Thicket”) in what is now Ogurisukosaka-cho, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto. Sustaining serious injuries from bamboo spears thrust out from the thicket, he performed harakiri then and there, with one of his retainers then striking off his head.
Mitsuhide’s head was then hidden, the story goes, by his second (kaishakunin) , and the Head Tomb (Kubizuka) in Umemiya-cho, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto is where it is said to have been buried.
Near Akechi’s Thicket was another tomb believed to be where his body (the torso) was buried.
This stone marker was erected by local well-wishers from Yamashina in October 1970 to pass on this story.
Kyoto City