Kenreimon-in, the empress, is suffering from a difficult pregnancy, so Kiyomori pardons, among others, the two of exiles of Book Two (Naritsune and Yasuyori) in the hopes of alleviating any of the suffering that may be caused by angry spirits of the living or dead. He cannot forgive Shunkan, however, and leaves him on Kikai-ga-shima. His former acolyte, Ariō, comes looking for him and finds him a shell of his former self. Ariō stays with Shunkan, who dies shortly thereafter. A whirlwind in the capital is thought to be caused by his angry ghost. Shigemori dies, and his life is remembered as being good and just. Lastly, the cloistered emperor is exiled by Kiyomori to the Toba Mansion where he stays into 1180.
Below are the four story arcs found within Book Three.
These five episodes o deal exclusively with the birth of the future emperor Antoku to Kiyomori's daughter Tokuko (later known as Kenreimon-in). Antoku's birth makes Kiyomori the grandfather to an emperor, granting him a great deal of power in the government. Episode one and three describe rituals performed to ensure the birth of a boy. In episode three Antoku is safely born, to the relief and joy of Kiyomori and the Taira clan and its dependents. Episode four provides a list (monozukushi): a roster of great lords who came on the occasion of the birth to pay homage to their new prince. Included are many high-ranking nobles and monks. Episodes five and six recount origin stories of, first, how the Taira patronage of Itsukushima began, and, second, how His Majesty had caused the death of a monk by not keeping his word, and that death caused the death of His Majesty's son Atsufun.
Kiyomori's envoy arrived at Kikai-ga-shima where Naritsune, Yasuyori, and Shunkan lived in exile. The pardon was given, and Shunkan was abandoned on the Island by his friends with a heavy heart and a belief that his friends would speak well of him and get him a pardon as well. Episode 7 brought Naritsune to his father home, then back to his family. Yasuyori decided to give up on modern life and became a hermit. Episode eight brought Ariō, Shunkan's friend, to the island of Kikai-ga-shima, where he found Shunkan slowly dying from starvation. Episode 9, after Shunkan's death, Ariō brought the letter he wrote for his daughter back from the island, upon recieivnig the letter she became a nun. Soon Ariō became a monk and prayed for Shunkan. Episode 10, the whirlwind takes the capital, due to the death of Shunkan and the hatred he felt for the people there who made his spirit angry in death.
Having become sick, Shigemori refuses to see a Chinese physician, based on precedent. On his deathbed, he takes the tonsure and shortly succumbs to his illness, leaving the realm without a voice of reason within the Taira clan. Three Episodes that talk about Shigemori's preparation for death. Episode twelve describes him passing on heirlooms of the House of Taira to his son Koremori. Episodes thirteen and fourteen concern his preparations for rebirth in the next life: he commissions the construction of a place of worship in China, and provides funds to pay for memorial prayers to be said for him there.
The pattern of narrating a death in one episode and then dedicating one or more episodes immediately following it appears numerous places in the text. In addition to providing a memorial to the dead, the eulogistic episodes serve the role of placation through praise.
These five episodes concern Kiyomori's taking of power from the Cloistered emperor in favor of the infant Antoku. In episode fifteen, Kiyomori complains o the great monk Jōken about the plot to over through him by Narichika and the Cloistered Emperor, but Jōken neither affirms nor denies the Cloistered Emperor's involvement in the attempted rebellion. Episode sixteen focuses exclusively on the banishments of multiple ministers and other dignitaries, including the regent and the chancellor. Episode seventeen describes Kiyomori appointing men he knows he can control to high office, including a man named Yukitaka who was named chamberlain and left minor controller. Episodes eighteen and nineteen deal with the removal of the Cloistered emperor from the palace to the Seian (Toba) detached palace, where he is forced to stay until early 1180. The narrator describes this as an effective banishment.