After the World War II, there were several theories as to the family origins such as the Kusunoki being the chief of an armed group of merchants who possessed the rights and skills of cinnabar exploitation, for example, like Nagatoshi NAWA, or billionares in sanjo (manor's area where people of the sanjo provided special skills to the imperial authority instead of rice tax); to date, none of these theories have been proven.
戦後、名和長年と同じく辰砂の採掘権と技術を有した商人的武装集団の頭目説、散所の長者説などが出されたが、いまだ定説は存在しない。