TAIRA no Kiyomori forced through his plan for the transfer of the capital, despite objections from Emperor Takakura and the Taira family, and it is said that he was aiming to establish a maritime state by expanding trade with the Sung (dynasty), and that if the city had been built, a powerful feudal government under the control of the Taira clan, a kind of 'Fukuhara Bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun)', would have been established.
平清盛は、高倉天皇と平家一門の反対を押し切って遷都を強行したが、それは宋(王朝)との貿易拡大によって海洋国家の樹立を目指したためともいわれ、都市整備が進めば平氏政権による「福原幕府」のようなものになったとも言われる。