In 1914 (Taishō 3), 21-year-old Tomoya Nakamura (中村知也) became the first known person to ride an "onbashira" as it was being slid down the "Kiotoshi-zaka". He is said to have repeated the same feat during the subsequent five festivals, making him a local legend. It apparently took some time for others to imitate Nakamura: a photograph attached to a newspaper article about the festival in 1920 distinctly shows no one on the "onbashira" depicted. It was only from the festivals of 1926 and 1932 that reports of log-riding began to appear.