This legend has engraved the memory of a capital into a valley village of Shinano. The district names of Higashikyo (Eastern Capital) and Nishikyo (Western Capital)^[1] still remain in Kinasa, with smaller place names like 'Tokyo Nijo' and 'Tokyo Sanjo' in Higashikyo, and 'Dairi-yashiki' (Palace Residence) and 'Tatemushi' in both capital districts, evoking thoughts of Kyoto. It is said that Kamo Shrine and Kasuga Shrine were enshrined on the east and west banks sandwiched between the Tenjin and Susobana Rivers as guardian deities of the capital, and foundation stones, obsidian, and 9th to 10th-century pottery and iron slag have been excavated from the ruins of Dairi-yashiki. These Kyoto-derived place names have been passed down as topographic memories corroborating the capital relocation legend.

The story motif of demons building a mountain in a single night is distributed in various places as superhuman mountain-building tales of giants and demons, but the uniqueness of the Mt. Ichiya legend in Kinasa is how firmly it ties this to the origin of the place name and the capital relocation legend. Academic theories suggest that rather than literal monsters, these demons are later retellings of the memories of local forces (those who did not submit) who did not easily obey the centralization of the Ritsuryo state. This resonates with the basin formation tale that Kinasa was once the bottom of a lake, which became a basin when the water dried up, was called Minase Village^[1], and was renamed Kinasa around the end of the 7th century. The topography of the valley, the memory of water, the yearning for a capital, and the legend of resistance are all condensed into the single peak of Mt. Ichiya.