In the reign of Emperor Yuryaku there was a man named Chiisakobe no Sugaru who served the emperor. One day, when the emperor was resting with the empress in the Iware palace, Sugaru walked in without knowing. The emperor was embarrassed and stopped what he was doing.
Just then thunder rang out in the sky. The emperor said to Sugaru, "Can you go and bring that thunder here?" Sugaru answered, "I will go and bring it."
Sugaru wound a red vine around his brow, took a halberd hung with a red banner, mounted his horse and galloped down the road past Abe no Yamada and on past Toyura Temple. When he reached the Morokoshi crossroads at Karu, he shouted at the top of his voice, "Thunder god of heaven, the emperor summons you!"
Turning his horse back from there, Sugaru said, "Thunder god or not, how can you refuse the emperor's call?" And there, between Toyura Temple and Iioka, the thunder had fallen. Sugaru called the priests, had the thunder put in a palanquin, carried it to the palace and reported to the emperor.
The thunder gave off light and shone brightly. The emperor was afraid when he saw it, made many offerings, and had it returned to the place where it had fallen. That place is now called Thunder Hill.
Later, when Sugaru died, the emperor kept his body for seven days and seven nights, remembering his loyalty. He built a grave where the thunder had fallen and set up a post inscribed, "The grave of Sugaru, who caught the thunder."
The thunder resented this. It came crashing down and kicked and stamped on the post. But it got caught in the split of the post and was captured again. When the emperor heard, he set it free, but the thunder seemed to have lost its spirit and stayed there for seven days and seven nights. The emperor set up a new post and had it inscribed: "The grave of Sugaru, who caught the thunder in life and in death."
This is how the place came to be called Thunder Hill in the days of the old capital.