Haruto MAEDA, a contemporary historian, would not acknowledge the historical authenticity of the Shido-shogun stories, and instead advocates that 'shido' referred to the regional division designed by Yamato sovereignty before establishing the goki-shichido system (a geological classification composed of five provinces in the capital region and seven circuits outside), and that the tales of Shido-shogun were fictions created to explain the process of establishing the goki-shichido system.
前田晴人は四道将軍の神話自体は史実とは認めないものの、ここに描かれた「四道」を五畿七道成立以前のヤマト王権の地域区分であったとし、四道将軍はその成立を説明するために創作された説話であるとする説を唱えている。