Iwamatsu Iezumi (岩松家純)
Iezumi IWAMATSU was the head of the Iwamatsu clan who lived during the middle of the Muromachi period. He was the founder of the Reibu family.
Biography
When the War of Zenshu UESUGI broke out in 1416, Iezumi's father Mitsuzumi IWAMATSU took the side of Iezumi's maternal grandfather (opinions are divided on this relationship) Zenshu (Ujinori) UESUGI, and in 1417, Iezumi's father was hunted down and executed by the Muromachi bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun).
After Iezumi's father was killed, Iezumi was disinherited by his grandfather Mitsukuni IWAMATSU. Therefore, he was not able to inherit the family estate, and became a priest. He feared persecution by the Bakufu, and escaped to western Japan.
However, after the Eikyo War, Iezumi was pardoned by Yoshinori ASHIKAGA and returned to secular life. This was said to have been Yoshinori's plot to back Iezumi as a member of the Bakufu group in opposition to his cousin, Mochikuni IWAMATSU(a child of Mitsuz umi's younger brother Mitsuharu) of the Kamakura Kubo group, who had succeeded the IWAMATSU family after Mitsuzumi's death.
As a result, the Iwamatsu clan was divided into two: Iezumi's Reibu group, controlling the Irako territory, and Mochikuni's Keicho group of Mochikuni controlling Nitta no sho.
Iezumi sided with the Uesugi clan in the Kyotoku War, and made many contributions, such as persuading Mochikuni on the Koga kobo side to join them. In 1461, he killed Mochikuni and his son Jiro, who attempted to defect to the enemy again.
In 1469, Iezumi went to Nitta no Sho in pursuit of Saburo Shigekane IWAMATSU (the founder of the Gokan clan), one of Mochikuni's sons and the successor of the KEICHO clan. There, he unified the IWAMATSU clan that had been divided for many years.
When the Kageharu NAGAO War broke out, Iezumi switched from the Horikoshi kubo group, with which he had been cooperating until then, to the Koga kubo group. When his legitimate son Akizumi IWAMATSU opposed it and rose in revolt against him, Iezumi disinherited his son and appointed his grandson Hisazumi IWAMATSU (Akizumi's son) to his successor. In the last years of Iezumi, the Kasai (main retainer) the Yokose clan, had grown in power, and came to wield more influence than the Iwamatsu clan.
In 1494, Iezumi died. It was his grandson (adopted child) Hisazumi IWAMATSU who succeeded him.