Isono Kazumasa

Isono Kazumasa (1523–1590) was a warrior of the Sengoku and Azuchi–Momoyama periods who served two generations of the Asai — Hisamasa and Nagamasa — and was counted, alongside Ōnogi Kunishige, Nomura Sadamoto and Mitamura Hidetoshi, as one of the "Four Wings of the Asai." He held Sawayama Castle in Ōmi Province, a key position guarding the southern approach to Asai territory. Northern Ōmi had belonged to the Kyōgoku, but real power passed to the Asai under Asai Sukemasa, and Kazumasa rose in their service. He earned renown in the fighting against the Rokkaku, and at the Battle of Anegawa in 1570 he led the Asai vanguard in an assault that drove deep toward Oda Nobunaga's own headquarters — remembered as "Kazumasa's eleven-rank collapse at Anegawa." He later submitted to Nobunaga and surrendered Sawayama, serving the Oda — in 1573 he took part in the capture of Sugitani Zenjūbō, who had tried to shoot Nobunaga. In the second month of 1578, however, he was rebuked by Nobunaga, fled his post and lost his lands. After the Honnō-ji Incident he returned to Takashima district in Ōmi and took up farming, dying in 1590 at the age of 68.