The clan ruled Awa Province as a Sengoku daimyō and was a major military power in the Kantō region during the wars of the Nanboku-chō period.

In response, Satomi Yoshitoyo launched an amphibious invasion of Kamakura, in the process of which his forces burned down the famed Shinto shrine of Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu.

The Hōjō were far stronger, and their armies broke the Satomi forces and even attacked Kururi Castle, but Yoshitaka turned to Uesugi Kenshin for assistance and kept his independence.

Yoshitaka's son, Satomi Yoshihiro (1530-1578) pledged fealty to Hōjō Ujitsuna in 1539 and surrendered the northern half of Kazusa Province.

At the beginning of the Edo period the clan was named the daimyō of Awa Province with a kokudaka of 120,000 koku under the Tokugawa shogunate.

[3] However, the clan was implicated in the Ōkubo Nagayasu Incident of 1614, and Satomi Tadayoshi (1594–1622) was banished to Hōki Province (present-day Tottori Prefecture), and had his holdings reduced to 30,000 koku.

Although the domain was restored in 1781 under Inaba Masaaki, he was not permitted to rebuild the castle, but only to construct a jinya fortified residence.