Bearing a grudge because of this, he killed himself by fasting to death, and it was widely believed that he became a rancorous ghost taking the shape of an iron rat (a huge rat as large as a bull with a stone body and iron teeth), and bit and tore the Buddhist scriptures belonging to Enryaku-ji Temple, as well as causing the death of the four-year-old Imperial Prince Atsufumi.
その後怨念を抱いて断食して命を絶ち、怨霊となって鉄鼠に化して延暦寺の経典を食い破り、敦文親王は四歳で頼豪の祟りによって死んだとされる。