After Sotoku's abdication and exile, he devoted himself to a monastic life. He copied numerous scriptures and offered them to the court. Fearing that the scriptures were cursed, the court refused to accept them. Snubbed, Sotoku was said to have resented the court and, upon his death, became an onryō. Everything from the fall in fortune of the Imperial court, the rise of the samurai powers, droughts and internal unrests were blamed on his haunting.