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\u00a0Katano. This story suggests that the Kisabe Castle was playing a significant role to stablise a trafic between the Kawachi area and the Yamato area.<\/p>\n
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,\u00a0by Jyunkei Tsutsui, who was the Daimyo of Yamato Tsutsui. However,\u00a0according to ‘Shinchokoki’, Oda visited Shinhichiro Yasumi, who was the master of the Kisabe Castle,\u00a0on Octobor 1st \u00a01578.\u00a0The episodo that Naomasa Yasumi was\u00a0beaten 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\u00a0real name was Ukon Yasumi. For example, ‘Shinchokoki’\u00a0introduces not Naomasa but Ukon\u00a0as the\u00a0master of the Kisabe Castle and some nobles’ diaries say that, in 1571, Matsunaga lured Ukon\u00a0to his death at the Tamon Castle in Yamato.<\/p>\n
After the death of Ukon,\u00a0his relative, Shinhichiro Yasumi, superseded him as the\u00a0master of the Kisabe Castle. As mentioned above, although Shinhichiro was attacked by\u00a0Matsunaga in 1572, Oda’s\u00a0subordinates saved the Kisabe Castle. Then, Shinhichiro worked for Nobunaga Oda\u00a0as ‘Toritsugimono’ in ‘Umazoroe (the Oda’s horse parade)’ in 1581. ‘Toritsugimono’ was a secretary, who arranged meetings between\u00a0Nobunaga and his subordinates.\u00a0In 1578, Nobunaga\u00a0met Shinhichiro in Katano when\u00a0returning to Kyoto.\u00a0It suggests that Nobunaga really trusted Shinhichiro and the Kisabe Castle might still\u00a0remained\u00a0as of 1578.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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Reference<\/strong><\/p>\n K., Nakai (2013) Kisabejyo: Sono Rekishi to Kozo<\/em> (The Kisabe Castle: Its History and Structure), in Katano Bunkazai Dayori<\/em>, Katano Foundation of Cultural Heritage.<\/p>\n *I owe many thanks to Mr. Hideji Takao who gave me many useful materials about the Kisabe Castle.<\/p>\n