Michizane was well-known as an eminent scholar; during the Ako Incident, he had written to the court remonstrating Mototsune when Mototsune still kept on calling for the banishment of TACHIBANA no Hiromi, who drafted the edict.
道真は優れた学者として知られ、阿衡事件の際に、基経がなおも詔を起草した橘広相の流罪を求めたときに上書して諫言した人物であった。