Editing Emperor Sutoku (section)

==Legends==
[[File:Yoshitsuya The Lightning Bolt.jpg|400px|thumb|Sutoku becoming {{nihongo3|[[vengeful spirit]]||[[onryō]]}}, by [[Utagawa Yoshitsuya]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ukiyo-e.org/image/artofjapan/06134235|title=Utagawa Yoshitsuya: Princess Shirinui Fights off the Evil Sotoku-in - The Art of Japan|website=ukiyo-e.org|access-date=18 April 2018}}</ref>]]
After Sutoku's abdication and exile, he devoted himself to monastic life.  He copied numerous scriptures and offered them to the court.  Fearing that the scriptures were cursed, the court refused to accept them.<ref>Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1963). ''Vicissitudes of Shinto,'' p. 99.</ref> Snubbed, Sutoku was said to have resented the court and, upon his death, became an {{nihongo3|[[vengeful spirit]]|怨霊|[[onryō]]}}.  Everything from the subsequent fall in fortune of the Imperial court, the rise of the samurai powers, droughts and internal unrests were blamed on his haunting.

Along with [[Sugawara no Michizane]] and [[Taira no Masakado]], he is often called one of the “{{ill|Three Great Onryō of Japan|ja|日本三大怨霊}}”.<ref name="onryotohananika">{{Cite book|author=山田雄司|title=妖怪とは何か 菅原道真・平将門・崇徳院|year=2014|publisher=中央公論新社|series=中公新書|isbn=978-4-12-102281-3|pages=i–iii頁|trans-title=What is a youkai? Sugawara no Michizane, Taira no Masakado, Sutokuin}}</ref>

Literary works from the Edo period such as {{transliteration|ja|[[Ugetsu Monogatari]]}} and {{nihongo3||[[:ja:椿説弓張月|椿説弓張月]]|Chinsetsu Yumiharizuki}} and [[ukiyo-e]] paintings by [[Utagawa Yoshitsuya]] depict Emperor Sutoku as an {{transliteration|ja|onryō}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/lib/vm/jl2016/2016/10/post-51.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220301125246/http://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/lib/vm/jl2016/2016/10/post-51.html|script-title=ja:E2-1 崇徳院説話の展開.|language=ja|publisher=[[Ritsumeikan University]]|date=25 October 2016|archive-date=1 March 2022|access-date=24 February 2023}}</ref>

In 2023, the [[Heavy metal music|heavy metal]] band [[Onmyo-Za]] produced the song {{nihongo3||白峯|Shiramine}}, about Emperor Sutoku as a {{transliteration|ja|onryō}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.billboard-japan.com/special/detail/3809|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224064102/https://www.billboard-japan.com/special/detail/3809|script-title=ja:＜インタビュー＞陰陽座、有りのままを形にした快作『龍凰童子』に迫る|language=ja|publisher=Billboard Japan|archive-date=24 February 2023|access-date=24 February 2023}}</ref>