This development made Motohiro KONOE and the Bakufu in Edo realize that the true motive underlying Emperor Reigen's insistence on succession by Shinomiya had not only been love of his own son but part of his long-cherished scheme to assume the virtual reins of the court as retired emperor and exercising ruling authority without allowing interference by the Sekkanke or the Bakufu, to whom handing over the imperial throne to the older Ichinomiya, who would soon become of age, would have been a disadvantage.
ここに至って近衛基熙や江戸幕府は、霊元天皇による四宮擁立の真意が皇子可愛さだけではなく、院政を開始して摂家や幕府の干渉を排して思いのままの政治を行うための長期計画の一環であり、すぐに成人を迎えてしまう年長の一宮に皇位を譲る事が不都合であったからであった事に気付くのである。