was a Japanese

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

of the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

through early

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, who served the

Tokugawa clan The is a Japanese dynasty which produced the Tokugawa shoguns who ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868 during the Edo period. It was formerly a powerful ''daimyō'' family. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and were a branch of ...

; he later became a ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

''. Nobunari is believed to have been the illegitimate son of

Matsudaira Hirotada was the lord of Okazaki Castle in Mikawa province, Japan during the Sengoku Period of the 16th century. He is best known for being the father of Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. Biography Hirotada was the son of Matsudaira ...

(which would make him the half-brother of

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

). He was later adopted by Naitō Kiyonaga. As the years passed on with his brother's succession to headship and the birth of the Tokugawa, Nobunari primarily acted as the former's page, but ascended to a greater means of ranking after supporting in the 1565 assault against Mikawa monk rioters. After distinguishing himself in battle during a certain assault upon Kuroma castle at a later time In 1572, during the

Takeda clan The was a Japanese samurai clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan reached its greatest influence under the rule of Taked ...

campaign in Mikawa, Nobunari participated in the forces of Tokugawa. Ieyasu sent him,

Honda Tadakatsu , also called Honda Heihachirō (本多平八郎) was a Japanese samurai, general, and daimyo of the late Sengoku through early Edo periods, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu. Honda Tadakatsu was one of the Tokugawa Four Heavenly Kings (Shitennō) a ...

, and Ōkubo Tadasuke, to lead the vanguard, where they meet Takeda forces led by Yamagata Masakage and Baba Nobuharu at the battle of Hitokotosaka. It is said that in this battle Tadakatsu gained recognition from the enemy forces for his antler helmet and his Tonbo-giri spear for his exploit in staving off the charges of Baba Nobuharu units. In the end of this battle, Tadakatsu and Naitō Nobunari fought well, as both of them managed to break through from the encirclement attempts by Takeda forces and managed to lead the Tokugawa forces to escape safely. In 1573, Nobunari went on to respectively support the Tokugawa within the

Battle of Mikatagahara The took place during the Sengoku period of Japan between Takeda Shingen and Tokugawa Ieyasu in Hamamatsu, Mikatagahara, Tōtōmi Province on 25 January 1573. Shingen attacked Ieyasu at the plain of Mikatagahara north of Hamamatsu during hi ...

in 1573, and Nagashino of 1575, where he showed at least moderate ability on both battlefields. By the year of 1590, Nobunari would be awarded Nirayama Castle of

Izu Province was a province of Japan in the area now part of Shizuoka Prefecture and Tokyo. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Izu''" in . Izu bordered on Sagami and Suruga Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . The mainland portion of Izu Prov ...

—respectively holding 10,000

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

to its name—and would enter into the

with a 50,000 koku fief at Nagahama within

Ōmi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture. It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō Circuit (subnational entity), circuit. Its nickname is . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, ...

, where he remained as ''

'' until he died in 1612. During the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, he defended Mimabashi Castle in Numazu, Suruga Province. Just before the battle, when Ieyasu stopped by Numazu, Nobunari expressed a wish to serve alongside Ieyasu instead of defending the castle. However, Ieyasu told him the importance to defend the castle. In the Edo period painting, Nobunari was depicted as one of the Tokugawa 28 generals (''Tokugawa nijūhachishinshōjin'').

Family

* Father:

* Mother: Naito no Tsubone * Wife: Awao Nagakatsu's daughter * Children: ** Naito Nobumasa (1568-1626) ** Naito Nobuhiro (d.1619) ** Naito Nobusuke

References

"Naitō" on ''Murakami daijiten''
(22 February 2008)

(22 February 2008) {{DEFAULTSORT:Naito, Nobunari Naitō clan Samurai 1545 births 1612 deaths Daimyo