There are easier ways to get attention on the internet than antagonizing a thousand-year-old vengeful spirit. Ainosuke, a Japanese livestreamer on Kick, apparently decided otherwise.

On August 19, Ainosuke visited Masakado-zuka, the famous memorial to 10th-century rebel Taira no Masakado in Otemachi. During the stream, he climbed onto the stone monument, wrapped his arms around it and made a series of strange, exaggerated cries toward a camera he had placed on the ground. He also pulled down his pants and gave it the middle finger.

Clips quickly spread across X, where the reaction was unusually alarmed even by the standards of nuisance-streaming outrage. The problem was not only that Ainosuke had behaved obscenely at a memorial site. It was whose memorial he had chosen.

Taira no Masakado is one of the most famously vengeful figures in Japanese folklore. A powerful warrior who rebelled against the imperial court, Masakado seized territory across eastern Japan and declared himself the “New Emperor” before being killed in battle in 940. His severed head was taken to Kyoto and put on public display.

According to legend, the head refused to decay. It eventually flew hundreds of kilometers back toward eastern Japan, landing near what is now Otemachi. Masakado-zuka — literally, Masakado’s “head mound” — is said to mark its resting place.

Over the centuries, disturbing the site has become associated with extraordinarily bad luck. After the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, the Finance Ministry redeveloped the surrounding land; a succession of deaths among officials and others connected to the project were subsequently attributed to Masakado’s curse. Another famous story dates to the American occupation, when an attempt to clear the area reportedly ended with a bulldozer overturning and killing its operator.

How much of this history is fact and how much is folklore is beside the point. Masakado-zuka has become one of Tokyo’s most notoriously cursed places, and the basic rule surrounding it is widely understood: don’t disrespect Masakado.

Ainosuke appears to have violated that rule about as comprehensively as possible.

He is part of a loose community of streamers known as Kickers and had been promoted from its third-string roster to its second on August 1. By midday August 21, his Kick account was inaccessible, although it is unclear whether the platform suspended him because of the incident.

On X, condemnation quickly became mixed with predictions that Ainosuke had brought something considerably worse upon himself. “This is beyond sacrilegious,” read one response quoted by Josei Jishin. “Of all places, Lord Masakado’s head mound.” Others simply wondered what would happen to him next.

There may also be more immediate consequences. The Masakado-zuka Preservation Association has reportedly contacted Marunouchi Police Station over the livestream.

Whether the authorities or a 10th-century vengeful spirit get to Ainosuke first remains to be seen.

Updated On August 21, 2026