Tanetsugu Is Assassinated and Crown Prince Sawara Is Removed

Fujiwara no Tanetsugu was shot at Nagaoka-kyō in 785 while Emperor Kanmu was away. He died from his wounds. As the senior official directing construction of the new capital, his killing struck both a court leader and an unfinished government project.

The investigation implicated members of the Ōtomo family and Crown Prince Sawara, Kanmu's younger brother. Sawara was deprived of his position and confined at Otokuni-dera. Later accounts describe him refusing food and dying during the journey toward exile on Awaji. Kanmu then designated his own son, Prince Ate, as crown prince. Punishment in the murder case had changed the expected succession.

The official accusations establish whom the court punished more securely than they establish every accused person's part in planning the assassination. In later years, disasters and illness were attributed to Sawara's resentful spirit, prompting acts of appeasement and rehabilitation. That religious interpretation developed after the investigation; it is distinct from proof of his guilt or of a spirit causing the disasters.