An incident showing Sanetomo's favor of Shigetane was written in "Azuma Kagami" (the Mirror of the East) that in November, 1206, Sanetomo sent a waka (a traditional Japanese poem of thirty-one syllables) to Shigetane to urge him to return to Kamakura, because he had gone to To estate in Shimousa Province (currently Tonosho-machi Town in Chiba Prefecture) and stayed there for a long time.
実朝の重胤の寵愛振りを示す出来事として『吾妻鏡』では建永元年（1206年）11月に、重胤が下総国の東荘（現在の千葉県東庄町）に帰ってしまい、なかなか帰ってこないので重胤に和歌を送って帰国を促した。