Amari Torayasu

Amari Torayasu (birth year unknown, possibly Meiō 7 (1498) – 23 March 1548 (Tenbun 17/2/14)) was a senior retainer of the Kai Takeda clan and one of the Twenty-Four Generals of Takeda. The Amari family was a hereditary senior retainer (fudai karō) of Seiwa Genji descent, and Torayasu served two generations of the Takeda house, Takeda Nobutora and Takeda Shingen.

After Shingen expelled his father Nobutora and became head of the clan in Tenbun 10 (1541), Torayasu, together with Itagaki Nobukata, supported both the administrative and military affairs of the Takeda house as the foremost shukurō (senior elder). In the Battle of Otaihara in Tenbun 16 (1547), Torayasu, together with Itagaki Nobukata, led a separate force to intercept the army of Kantō Kanrei Uesugi Norimasa, which was coming to reinforce Shiga Castle. They won a great victory, killing fourteen or fifteen enemy commanders and three thousand soldiers. This battle is recorded in the chronicle Katsuyama-ki.

In the following year, Tenbun 17 (1548), in the Battle of Uedahara, the Takeda army led by Shingen clashed with the Shinano army led by Murakami Yoshikiyo. In this battle, after the Murakami forces, emboldened by having killed Itagaki Nobukata, threatened Shingen, Torayasu protected him and died in combat. The deaths of these two senior retainers were a great loss to the Takeda house, and it is said that Shingen deeply regretted this defeat. Torayasu was succeeded by his son, Amari Nobutada (also called Masatada). The modern politician Amari Akira claims descent from Torayasu.