Taira no Masakado

Taira no Masakado, great-grandson of Emperor Kanmu, was the first warrior to raise a full-scale armed rebellion against the central government and the first to claim an independent royal title — declaring himself 'Shin-nō' (New Emperor) over all eight provinces of the Kantō in 939. He was killed in battle the following year, but his severed head, according to legend, opened its eyes, ground its teeth, and flew back east to seek its body. His burial mound in Ōtemachi, Tokyo, is still venerated and feared today, with misfortunes allegedly befalling every attempt to disturb it. Masakado stands at the very origin of Japan's samurai era, preceding the Minamoto-Taira wars by over a century. The swords of his era — Ko-Hōki, Ko-Bizen, Ko-Yamashiro — are among the oldest and most spiritually potent blades in existence, and Masakado's blade was almost certainly a work of that supreme early age.