During the Edo Period, the Confucian ideals of humanity and morality were important, and Masako is given high praise in the "Dai Nihon Shi" and by scholars such as Hakuseki ARAI and Sanyo RAI for her leadership of the Kamakura government after the death of her husband Yoritomo, yet added the criticism that she lacked morality, which led to the violent death of her sons (Yoriie, Sanetomo), the decline of the family she married into (the Minamoto clan) and the rise to power of her birth family, the Hojo clan.
江戸時代になると儒学の影響で人倫道徳観に重きを置かれるようになり、『大日本史』や新井白石、頼山陽などが政子を評しているが、頼朝亡き後に鎌倉幕府を主導したことは評価しつつも、子（頼家、実朝）が変死して婚家（源氏）が滅びて、実家（北条氏）がこれにとって代ったことが婦人としての人倫に欠くと批判を加えている。