As a result, historians believe that, since Yoshiie represented the new rising bushi class, his treatment by the imperial court over the Later Three Years' War was a 'conspiracy of Shirakawain (Retired Emperor Shirakawa)' or a 'conspiracy of the Sekkan-ke (the five houses of the Fujiwara clan that usually held the regency).'
このため歴史学者からは、義家は新興武士勢力の象徴ともみなされ、後三年の役の朝廷の扱いも「白河院の陰謀」「摂関家の陰謀」など様々な憶測がされてきた。