When Matsunaga attacked the Kisabe Castle, Oda dispached his ordinances, Nobumori Sakuma and Katsuie Shibata, to Katano for protecting Yasumi. They finally succeeded to exclude Matsunaga from Katano. This story suggests that the Kisabe Castle was playing a significant role to stablise a trafic between the Kawachi area and the Yamato area.
It was said that Naomasa Yasumi was killed by Muryokoji’s monk army, which was for Ishiyama Honganji in the Oda-Ishiyamahonganji battle (1570 to 1580), and the Kisabe Castle was destroyed, in 1573, by Jyunkei Tsutsui, who was the Daimyo of Yamato Tsutsui. However, according to ‘Shinchokoki’, Oda visited Shinhichiro Yasumi, who was the master of the Kisabe Castle, on Octobor 1st 1578. The episodo that Naomasa Yasumi was beaten by Muryokoji’s monks in 1573 is nowadays regarded as ‘untrue’. Because it is said that Naomasa Yasumi was not an actual figure in history and that the real name was Ukon Yasumi. For example, ‘Shinchokoki’ introduces not Naomasa but Ukon as the master of the Kisabe Castle and some nobles’ diaries say that, in 1571, Matsunaga lured Ukon to his death at the Tamon Castle in Yamato.
After the death of Ukon, his relative, Shinhichiro Yasumi, superseded him as the master of the Kisabe Castle. As mentioned above, although Shinhichiro was attacked by Matsunaga in 1572, Oda’s subordinates saved the Kisabe Castle. Then, Shinhichiro worked for Nobunaga Oda as ‘Toritsugimono’ in ‘Umazoroe (the Oda’s horse parade)’ in 1581. ‘Toritsugimono’ was a secretary, who arranged meetings between Nobunaga and his subordinates. In 1578, Nobunaga met Shinhichiro in Katano when returning to Kyoto. It suggests that Nobunaga really trusted Shinhichiro and the Kisabe Castle might still remained as of 1578.
However, after Nobunaga was toppled by Honnoji no Hen (the Honnoji incident) in 1582, the Yasumi family suddenly disappeared from history. The reason is shrouded in mystery.
Reference
K., Nakai (2013) Kisabejyo: Sono Rekishi to Kozo (The Kisabe Castle: Its History and Structure), in Katano Bunkazai Dayori, Katano Foundation of Cultural Heritage.
*I owe many thanks to Mr. Hideji Takao who gave me many useful materials about the Kisabe Castle.
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