Asonuma Narisato
阿曽沼就郷

Asonuma Clan

Bushō

Aki Province
Lifespan: 15xx to 8/25 of Kanei 17 (1640)
Other Names: Genzaemon (common)
Rank: bushō
Title: Governor of Tosa, Governor of Tango
Clan: Asonuma (from the Ashikaga branch of the Tō clan)
Bakufu: Edo
Domain: Chōshū
Lord: Mōri Terumoto → Mōri Hidenari
Father: Asonuma Hirohide
Siblings: Motohide, Narisato, sister (second wife of Mōri Motomasa), sister (wife of Katsura Motonobu)
Children: Kataoka Narisada
Asonuma Narisato served as a bushō during the Azuchi-Momoyama and early Edo periods. Narisato was a retainer of the Mōri clan and, in the early Edo period, of the Chōshū domain with a fief of 600 koku.
Narisato was born as the second son of Asonuma Hirohide, a kokujin, or provincial landowner, based in the Senoarayama manor in the Aki District of Aki Province.
On 11/29 of Keichō 2 (1597), his father, Hirohide, died. For the Keichō Campaign beginning in 1596, Narisato’s older brother, Asonuma Motohide, obeyed Mōri Hidemoto and crossed to the Korean Peninsula. After engaging in numerous battles, Motohide participated in the urgent construction of Ulsan Castle in Ulsan, but, just prior to its completion, on 12/22 of Keichō 2 (1597), at the First Siege of Ulsan Castle, Motohide, along with other retainers of the Mōri including Reizei Motomitsu and Tsuno Ieyori, was killed in action during a sudden attack by 1,000 light infantry soldiers serving under the command of 擺寨 in the vanguard of the Chinese army. As a result, Motohide’s lineal heir, Asonoma Motosato, inherited the headship of the clan.
On 4/17 of Keichō 20 (1615), the Edo bakufu ordered Mōri Hidenari to deploy for the Summer Campaign of the Siege of Ōsaka. On 4/28, Terumoto and Hidenari instructed Narisato and Kihara Narishige to impose a rule by which soldiers who proceed to the capital will be treated as though under their command (without regard to which unit they are assigned) and violators will be punished. Among the arquebusiers assigned to Narisato and Narishige, orders were given to exempt from construction work five soldiers from each unit so they could be called upon as needed.
On 9/3 of Kanei 9 (1632), Hidenari recognized the transfer to Narisato’s lineal heir, Narisada, headship of the clan and a fief of 600 koku. Narisato died on 8/25 of Kanei 17 (1640).