Also he was called by MINAMOTO no Yoritomo, the 'No.1 Tengu (Mountain spirit) in Japan' which means the most boisterous person in Japan, since he used the Samurai forces, such as the Taira clan or Yoshinaka KISO, to keep his political authority and killed them when they were no longer needed, in another words he used and discarded people. (however recently there is another theory that this expression about Tengu is considered to be describing his close aide, TAKASHINA no Yasutsune.)
また、自分の政権維持のために、平家や木曾義仲ら武士勢力を利用しては、その存在が邪魔になると討伐という形で使い捨てを続けた事から、源頼朝からは「日本国第一の大天狗」と評された（ただし、近年この大天狗の表現は、院近臣の高階泰経を指したのではないかとする説も出ている）。