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Man arrested for threatening a shrine in Kyoto because they used AI art

Master Blaster Jul 4, 2025
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Sometimes you have to ask yourself, “Am I acting like a demon?”

AI remains a divisive technology, especially on social media, and any company that attempts to use it in its promotions risks considerable blowback. A Shinto shrine, however, wouldn’t seem as susceptible to that. It’d be like telling off your grandma for posting an AI image on Facebook.

And yet, last March Kurumazaki Shrine in Kyoto City caused a bit of an uproar online when they changed their Twitter profile pic to an illustration of a miko shrine maiden created by an illustrator who uses generative AI. Perhaps Kurumazaki Shrine is held to a somewhat higher standard since it’s a rather high-profile place of worship that is dedicated to the performing arts and has been visited by more than a few celebrities over the years.

▼ A news report on the initial outrage

As shown in the news report from a few months ago, the shrine received messages of “Curse, curse, curse, curse, etc.” and “I’ll beat you to death,” the latter of which certainly crossed the line of legality. An investigation was launched, leading to the arrest of an unemployed 38-year-old man living in nearby Shiga Prefecture on 3 July.

This same suspect was also accused of sending dozens of emails to the shrine between 23 and 27 March, including one which read, “Your shitty shrine will burn down in a fire of unknown origin someday,” and the aforementioned one about beating them to death, accompanied by images of flames which I have to assume were not AI generated.

The man admitted to the charges against him and explained to police that he was angry about the shrine’s stance of supporting a generative AI artist. That artist goes by the name of Graham-san and posted the following after hearing about the arrest:

I’m really relieved that the person making the threats was arrested. I hope they get the punishment they deserve. Their motive was awful, and I heard someone at Kurumazaki Shrine had to be hospitalized because of all this.

In this case, I think the people who incited all this outrage against the shrine are just as responsible too, even if it is just on social media. Why did the shrine have to get so much criticism just for changing their profile pic to an illustration made by an AI? Was there really any need for that?

I’ve been through a lot of stress myself over this incident. I’ve been called a criminal, a thief, and the one to blame for all this. But now, I think it’s clear who is really to blame.

I’m very grateful to the police for taking firm action against this excessive behavior.

Again, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but if you put your thoughts into words that attack others, then it’s only natural that you’ll be held responsible. Please consider the consequences before casually attacking others.

脅迫犯が逮捕されて、本当に一安心です。
犯人には、それなりの処罰が下されることを望みます。
動機があまりにも酷いですし、車折神社さんでは入院した人もいたと聞いています。

そして今回の事件で、SNS上でとはいえ、車折神社さんを炎上させた人達も私からすれば同罪だと思っています。… pic.twitter.com/k3UCCNVkl1

— グラハムさん@AI術師 (@Graham__san) July 3, 2025

Comments online tended to agree, regardless of their stance on AI, that there’s no reason to threaten people’s lives over it.

“I’m getting the feeling that around 38 years old is when Internet literacy is at its worst.”
“I knew it would come to this someday with all the fighting online, so I’m glad he was caught.”
“To get that angry about AI art…”
“If he were an artist, I could maybe understand, but he doesn’t even have a job.”
“I kind of think this guy doesn’t even care about AI. He just has some other issues.”
“I see a lot of people against AI illustrations online, so I think this will happen again.”

We can probably all agree that AI-generated art likely isn’t going away, unless everyone eventually gets bored of using it, like we did with selfie sticks. And at the same time, it certainly doesn’t look like opposition to AI-generated art will go away either, unless everyone eventually gets bored of being offended by it, like we did with selfie sticks.

Until one of these two sides ultimately wins out over the other, hopefully everyone can avoid making death threats and keep their emotions regarding shrine maidens with amorphous fingers in check.

Source: Kyoto Shimbun, Twitter/@Graham_san, Hachima Kiko
Featured image: ©SoraNews24
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