At this location in May 11th, 1891, the visiting Russian Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich (later Tsar Nicholas II) was nearly assassinated by Tsuda Sanzō after a visit to Lake Biwa from Kyōto. The incident threatened to create a pretext for war against Japan by the Russian Empire, but careful diplomatic moves by Emperor Meiji and a life sentence for Tsuda resulted in full satisfaction from the Russian government.