was a Japanese samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 of the late Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

. The 15th head of the Watari-Date family, Kuninari served as a retainer of Sendai han. Following the defeat of the Sendai domain during the Boshin War

Boshin War

The was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the imperial court....

, he assisted in helping the daimyo of Sendai, Date Munemoto

Date Munemoto

Count was a Japanese daimyo of the late Edo period, who became a peer during the Meiji era. He was the last ruler of the Sendai Domain....

, in declaring allegiance to the new government. Kuninari requested permission from the Meiji Government to settle in Hokkaido and assist in land reclamation; this was granted in January 1870 (Meiji 3). Kuninari led his retainers north and settled in the , succeeding in reclamation at the new , which through mergers became the current Date City

Date, Hokkaido

is a city located in Iburi, Hokkaidō, Japan.Date was established around 1869 and became a city on April 1, 1972.Date lies at the conjunction of National Highway Route 37 and Route 453....

.