Kamiizumi Nobutsuna - Later Years and Death

Later Years and Death

A councillor in Kyōto named Yamashina Tokitsugu wrote in his diary that Kamiizumi came to the capital in 1570. He stayed with Yamashina for about two years, teaching Shinkage-ryū, and serving Yamashina. During this time he was known as Kamiizumi Musashi-no-kami Nobutsuna, or sometimes Ōgo Musashi-no-kami. In 1572 he visited Yagyū Village, and then traveled back to eastern Japan, with a letter of introduction from Yamashina to the Yuki clan in Shimōsa Province. The last known record of Kamiizumi is an entry in the records of Seirinji, a Soto Zen Buddhist temple in the town where Kamiizumi’s family castle once stood. The record notes that Kamiizumi helped establish the temple in 1577, erecting a gravestone and paying for services. The temple still stands in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture.

It is not known when Kamiizumi died. One record notes that he died in 1572, but this is clearly contradicted by the Seirinji record noted above. Another record notes that he died in 1577 in Yagyū Village, but the Yagyū family have no records of this, and while there is a memorial to him there, there is no grave. One theory is that the gravestone and services held in 1577 were for Kamiizumi himself, while another is that the gravestone and services were for the 12th anniversary of his son’s death, a common rite in Japan. A document of Kiraku-ryū, a jujutsu school based in the Gunma area, says Kamiizumi died in Odawara in 1577, while a document of the Kamiizumi family suggests he died in Odawara in 1582.