The paintings in the work, in the Yamato-e style, are distinguished by both the dynamism of lines and movement and the vivid colours, as well as a realistic impetus characteristic of the arts of the Kamakura period.

Ironically, among these children spared was Minamoto no Yoritomo who, a generation later in the Genpei War (1180–1185), would avenge his father and take control of all of Japan, establishing the political domination of the warriors in the new Kamakura period, from which the emakimono dates.

The rivalries of clans, wars, personal ambitions and political intrigue amid social change and radical policies have made the Heiji rebellion an epic subject par excellence.

[12] Today, only three scrolls of the original emakimono remain, narrating the rebellion passages corresponding to the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth chapters in The Tale of Heiji.

[14] Under the cover of night and with the help of his followers, his escort managed to escape the Minamoto guards and to join Taira no Kiyomori in Rokuhara (his men however failed to bring back the shinkyō, or sacred mirror).

[17] The fourteen fragments of the fourth scroll, scattered in various collections, are about the Battle of Rokuhara: Minamoto no Yoshitomo attacks the stronghold of the Taira, but he is defeated and must flee to the east of the country.

[20] The first scroll, now in Boston, depicting the burning of the Sanjō Palace, is regularly described as one of the masterpieces of Japanese emakimono art and of military painting of the world in general.

[24][27] The pictorial proximity between all the scrolls shows that they probably come from the same workshop painters, but slight variations tend to confirm that the preparation took place over several decades during the second half of the 13th century, without the reason for such a long period of creation being known.

[28][29] Fragments of the fourth or Battle of Rokuhara scroll, a little more recent and slightly different in style, may belong either to the original work or to an old copy from the Kamakura period according to art historians, but again the true position is uncertain.

[31] The work belongs mainly to the otoko-e ("painting of men") genre of Yamato-e, typical of epic tales or religious legends, by emphasising the freedom of ink lines and the use of light colours leaving portions of paper bare.

However, and as in the Ban Dainagon Ekotoba, it is combined with the onna-e (or "painting of women") court style of Yamato-e, especially in the choice of more vivid colours for certain details such as clothing, armour and flames.

[14][34][35] A new desire for realism, notable in several aspects of the Heiji Monogatari Emaki, also marked the art of portrayal of Kamakura warriors: in this work, the combat scenes are expressed in a raw and brutal way, showing the suffering and death in the glowing flames and blood.

[39] The painter thus manages to vary with accuracy the rhythm of the narration throughout the emakimono, for example making passages of strong tensions succeed more peaceful scenes, such as the arrival of Emperor Nijō among the Taira after his perilous flight.

[38] The long painted sequences with continuous compositions, sometimes interspersed with short calligraphy, make possible the intensification of the painting to its dramatic climax, in the remarkable scene of the fire at the Sanjō Palace:[40] the reader first discovers the flight of the Emperor's troops, then more and more violent fighting leading up to the confusion around the fire – the summit of the composition where the density of the characters only fades in front of the ample volutes of smoke – and then finally the scene calms down with the encirclement of the Emperor's chariot and a soldier who moves away peacefully towards the left.

[41] For art historians, the mastery of composition and rhythm, evident in continuous paintings, as well as the care given to colours and lines, make this scroll one of the most admirable to have survived from the Kamakura period.

The first or Sanjō Palace fire scroll shows a wide range of this military class: clan chiefs, horse archers, infantry, monk-soldiers, imperial police (kebiishi) ...

The weapons and armour depicted in the emakimono are also very realistic, and as a whole the work testifies to the still predominant role of the mounted yumi archer, and not the katana infantryman, for the samurai of the 12th century.

The long corridors of the Palace lined with panels, windows or blinds, the raised wooden verandas and the roofs covered with thin layers of Japanese cypress bark (桧 皮 葺, hiwada-buki) are characteristic of the style.

[52] The whole of the original Heiji Monogatari Emaki was kept for a long time at the Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei, overlooking Kyoto, together with the emakimono, no longer extant, of The Tale of Hōgen.