Visiting Kyoto was in Nicholas’s plan for Japan.
On April 28, escorted by Greek Prince George and interpreter Marquis Ito, Nicholas met with Terakuto.
Marquis Ito quoted two of Terakuto’s prophesies in his memoirs.
The first: “The danger is lingering over your head, but the death will step back, wherefore a cane will be stronger than a sword… and the cane will then shine and glitter.” The second: “Great sorrows and convulsions are apprehending you and your country. You will be fighting for everyone, and everyone will be against you. Beautiful flowers grow at the edge of an abyss, but their poison is pestiferous: children long to the flowers and fall down into the abyss if they do not listen to their Father… There is no sacrifice blessed more than the one you made for your entire people… I see tongues of fire above yours and your family’s heads…”
A few days after this meeting with Terakuto, an attempt on Nicholas’s life was made in the town of Otsu.
…Policeman Tsuda Sandzo pulled out his samurai sword and hit Nicholas on his head twice. Greek Prince George saved Nicholas’s life having deflected the third blow aside with his cane. Rickshaws seized and disarmed the assailant.
(Later on) by order of Alexander III the cane that had played such an outstanding role was decorated with adamants and given back Prince Gtorge.
As Terakuto had predicted, “the cane turned out to be stronger than the sword, and the cane started shining with glitter…” The first of the two prophecies came true.
For a few days, Nicholas remained sad… But he was only 23, and his melancholy could not last long… It is hard to believe that he was able to perceive the gist of the second prophecy at the time…
1896-1898
…Five years passed. They embraced his father’s death (Alexander III), his marriage to Hessian Princess Alice, the official coronation in Moscow, and numerous peoples’ deaths during the coronation festivities at the Khodynka Field…
By the way, according some data, the mass stampede took place not only at Khodynka Field in Moscow in 1896, but also earlier – at Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in London (in 1887): in the memoirs of Russian general Kuropatkin (due to the "Khodynka" in May 1896 in Moscow), we read: "The Duke of Edinburgh said that during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the reign of Queen Victoria had 2,500 people were killed and several thousand injured and no one was embarrassed.