The "Heike monogatari" describes Yorimasa visiting the down-on-his-luck prince Mochihito at his mansion in the dead of night and proposing that they overthrow the government, but at this point Yorimasa was 77 years old, which has prompted some to suspect it was the other way around--that it was prince Mochihito, distressed at the disruption of imperial succession, who approached Yorimasa about raising an army.
『平家物語』では、頼政が夜半に不遇の以仁王の邸を訪れ、謀反を持ちかけたことになっているが、当時頼政は77歳という高齢であり、皇位への道を断たれて不満を持っていた以仁王の方から頼政に挙兵を持ちかけたという見方もある。