Documents including "Gyokuyo" (Diary of Kanezane KUJO) described how the land of Shirakawa, which had been an important area for traffic, was devastated and how the imperial palace and temples were kept ransacked by the poor and needy during and after the Genpei War (1180-1185, a war between the Taira clan and the Minamoto clan in which the latter defeated the former and established the Kamakura shogunate government).
だが、源平合戦で交通の要所であった白河の地は荒廃し、窮民によって御所や寺院が荒らされていく様子が『玉葉』などに記されている。