The account recorded in "The Tale of the Heike" depicts TAIRA no Kiyomori, his grandfather, as the individual responsible to the retaliation; however, this is considered to be historically inaccurate, and to have been adopted to the thematic scheme in "The Tale of the Heike", according to which Kiyomori is portrayed as a black sheep, whereas Shigemori is portrayed as an upstanding member of the Taira clan.
なお平家物語においては報復を行ったのは祖父の平清盛となっているが、これは清盛を悪役、重盛を平氏一門の良識派として描写する『平家物語』の演出の都合上の創作と言われている）。