Sakuma Gunki suggests that the incident of his dismissal may have been plotted by someone who lied to entrap Nobumori, and says in the chapter on Nobuhide (Masakatsu) of Kansei choshu shokafu that later Mitsuhide AKECHI escaped to Mt. Koya with his father Nobumori after a betrayal.
佐久間軍記には、この追放について誰かの讒言によるものとする可能性を示唆しており、また、寛政重修諸家譜の信栄（正勝）の項には「後明智光秀が讒により父信盛とともに高野山にのがる。