Legend has it that, in the ninth century, samurai warrior Fujiwara no Hidesato slayed a giant centipede with his bow and arrow on the Seta no Karahashi Bridge. Many centuries later, his descendant O-take brought Hidesato’s monster-slaying arrowhead to her husband, daimyo lord Nanbu Toshinao, as a dowry, unaware of what it might bring about.
The curse manifested as soon as O-take died. First, a centipede-shaped bruise suddenly emerged on her body. Toshinao ordered her grave to be enclosed within a moat, as it was believed that centipedes are afraid of water, but every time he built a bridge over it a huge centipede appeared out of nowhere and destroyed it. Soon, a swarm of centipedes of all sizes started crawling out of the grave and O-take’s hair turned into one-eyed snakes.
Due to these supernatural incidents, Lady O-take eventually came to be known as Princess Centipede. Today, the Grave of Princess Centipede retains its eerie presence between the cemetery of Kōdai-ji Temple and modern parking lots. Since the legend does not state how the situation was solved, you may want to beware the reemergence of the monstrous centipedes when visiting.
