at around 7:30am, he was rushed to Japanese Red Cross Medical Center in Hiroo, where he was pronounced dead at 8:52 am by Japanese Red Cross Medical Center. Authorities officially deemed Hide's death a suicide, and it was reported in the media as such. Within one week, three teenage fans had died in copycat suicides. At the wake on May 6, which 10,000 people attended, a 19-year-old girl slit her wrists after laying flowers at the temple, and a car crash caused by sleep-deprived fans traveling from Osaka caused one death and seven serious injuries on a motorway. His remains were buried in Miura Reien in Miura, Kanagawa during a Buddhist memorial service. Approximately 50,000 people attended his funeral at Tsukiji Hongan-ji on May 7, where 56 people were hospitalized and 197 people received medical treatment in first aid tents due to a mixture of emotional exhaustion and heat, with the funeral taking place on the warmest day of the year so far, at 27 degrees Celsius (about 80.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Several of Hide's friends and colleagues stated that they believed the auto-strangulation to have been an accident, among them X Japan co-founder Yoshiki and former X bassist Taiji. No suicide note was left and Taiji theorizes in his autobiography that on the night of his death, Hide may have been practicing a technique to relieve upper back and neck pains which guitarists can suffer from due to continuous use of a shoulder strap. The technique involved was practiced by the X Japan members during their touring days and required the use of a towel and a doorknob or handle. According to Taiji, Hide may have fallen asleep in his intoxicated state, becoming caught and strangling himself. Zilch bassist Paul Raven said, "I saw him a few days before he passed away, and I had no indication from him that anything was wrong, other than that he was exhausted," but commented that Hide was "under a lot of stress," due to the recording schedule for the Ja, Zoo album. He went on to question the ultimate degree of Hide's involvement in the finished record, remarking that only three songs had been completed before he died. However, Hide's younger brother and manager stated in his 2010 book that six songs were completed by the time of his death. This is supported by the fact that I.N.A. is credited with additional arrangement