was a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 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....

. Kuninori was both the 12th head of the Mizusawa-Date clan and the 26th generation head of the famed Rusu clan

Rusu clan

The ' were a Japanese clan which claimed descent from Fujiwara Kaneie's son Michikane. They assumed the name Rusu following Minamoto no Yoritomo's conquest of northern Japan; the family, then named Isawa, were entrusted with keeping watch in the north during Yoritomo's absence...

, and served as a retainer of the Sendai domain. Known for his good governance

Good governance

Good governance is an indeterminate term used in development literature to describe how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources in order to guarantee the realization of human rights. Governance describes "the process of decision-making and the process by which...

, Kuninori amply compensated the people made homeless by the large fire in his holdings at Mizusawa, opening his own stores of food to the public and providing them lumber from domainal holdings for rebuilding their homes. Advising his retainers to be frugal, he had them work for the revival of Mizusawa's town. 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 was sent to Shirakawaguchi in place of his lord, Date Yoshikuni

Date Yoshikuni

was a Japanese daimyo lord of the late Edo period, known primarily for being the commander-in-chief of the Northern Alliance of Confederated Domains during the Boshin War.During his tenure as lord he was also known by his courtesy title, Matsudaira ....

.

Following the war, he moved to the Sapporo district of Hokkaidō

Hokkaido

, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...

, and settled at .