In the sixth month of 1180, Kiyomori suddenly moved the capital to Fukuhara in Settsu. Fukuhara was where Kiyomori had a villa and where he had rebuilt the harbor of Owada as a base for trade with Song China.
After the capital moved to Fukuhara, the Taira had bad dreams, always felt uneasy, and many strange things happened. One night a face so large it filled the room appeared in Kiyomori's bedchamber and stared at him. Kiyomori, not the least disturbed, glared back, and the face vanished.
Another morning, when Kiyomori looked out at the inner garden, countless skulls of the dead had gathered, tumbling over and under one another. At last they massed into one great skull that filled the whole garden and glared at Kiyomori with thousands upon thousands of eyes like those of the living. Kiyomori glared back at this too, and it vanished without a trace, like frost or dew in the sun.
On top of these wonders, the nobles and everyone else hated the new capital. That winter, the capital was moved back to Kyoto after all. The next year, Kiyomori fell ill with a fever, and died, saying, "Hang Yoritomo's head before my grave."
In 1183, attacked by Kiso Yoshinaka, the Taira abandoned the capital and fled west. They reached Fukuhara and spent a night there; the next morning the Taira set fire to the palace at Fukuhara, boarded their ships and rowed out to sea. The halls Kiyomori had built with such care, the Hill Palace for cherry blossoms in spring, the Beach Palace for the autumn moon, the Snow-Viewing Palace, the Thatched Palace, became ash in a moment.
"Looking back on my home turned to a burned field, I go on a sea road where the way ahead too is smoke." The Taira looked back at Fukuhara wrapped in smoke and went off onto the aimless waves.