The Miyawaki family murder-suicide is the latest tragedy in a string of events associated with a reportedly cursed property in Setagaya. The family’s deaths follow financial ruin and the loss of their home, renewing public attention to the land and reinforcing its reputation as jinxed.

Background and Family Circumstances

Kojiro Miyawaki owned the long-established Rooftop Grill restaurant chain, headquartered in Ginza. After selling all the restaurants and declaring bankruptcy in the face of massive debt, he was pursued by several nonbank lenders with ties to organized crime. The family’s financial collapse thus preceded the tragedy, though the evidence does not establish it as a direct cause of the deaths.

The Family’s Deaths

In January, Miyawaki killed his fourteen-year-old daughter, Yukie, while she slept at an inn in Takamatsu City. He and his wife, Natsuko, then died by suicide. Their eldest daughter, who was a college student at the time, remained missing. The account presents the deaths as a murder-suicide, distinguishing Yukie’s killing from her parents’ suicides and leaving the eldest daughter’s fate unresolved.

The Property and Its Reputation

The deaths became part of the property’s public story because they were reported alongside its history. Miyawaki had bought the land in April 1972, despite ominous rumors, which he dismissed as coincidences. He demolished the long-vacant house, had the lot graded, and called in a Shinto priest to exorcise any lingering evil spirits before building a new, two-story home. The family then appeared to lead a tranquil life, and neighbors remembered the daughters as bright and happy. After ten years, however, the family’s fortunes took a sudden and disastrous turn.

Miyawaki lost the house, which he had used as collateral, in the fall of 1983. Disputes among creditors delayed its final disposal until a court-mediated settlement the following summer opened the way for the land to be sold. The later murder-suicide renewed attention to the site: news reports mentioned the land, strengthening the association between the family tragedy and the property’s already troubling reputation.