He and his companions in exile, Taira no Yasunori and the monk Shunkan, feature prominently in a number of traditional Japanese dramas, including the Noh play Shunkan and the jōruri puppet play Heike Nyogo-ga-shima which was later adapted for kabuki as well.
The lord of Tanba province, Naritsune was married to a niece of Taira no Kiyomori,[2] chief minister in the Imperial government.
He features prominently in the early chapters of the Heike Monogatari as it relates the tale of the plot and subsequent exile.
[4] Some months after their banishment, Empress Tokuko suffered an illness which was blamed on the angry spirit of the late Narichika.
He was then reunited with his young son, who had been roughly three years old (by Japanese traditional reckoning), and another child, who had yet to be born when he was exiled.