The shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo ordered Kajiwara no Kagesue to behead the Soga brothers. However, Hatakeyama Shigetada intervened to prevent the executions. Tweezers appear in the composition as beard plucking occurs in the play based on the Soga brothers’ story. Shigetada also displayed quick thinking and sound judgment in the Tale of the Heike by telling commander Yoshitsune that the water level of a river would not drop so the group should cross it rather than wait.