was a Japanese samurai 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 ...

Feudal Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to the Paleolithic, around 38–39,000 years ago. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC whe ...

. The son and successor of

Amari Torayasu was a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku period, and served the Takeda clan under Takeda Nobutora and Shingen. Amari was a ''shukurō'', or clan elder, following Shingen's accession to family headship and was one of "Twenty-Four Generals of Takeda S ...

, he was a senior retainer of 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 ...

of Kai Province, and ranked among

Takeda Shingen was daimyō, daimyo of Kai Province during the Sengoku period of Japan. Known as "the Tiger of Kai", he was one of the most powerful daimyo of the late Sengoku period, and credited with exceptional military prestige. Shingen was based in a p ...

's 'Twenty-four Generals'. Masatada also served as one of Shingen's personal attendants. During Shingen's campaign in

Shinano Province or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture. Shinano bordered Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...

, Masatada served with distinction at the

Battle of Kawanakajima The were a series of battles fought in the Sengoku period of Japan between Takeda Shingen of Kai Province and Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo Province from 1553 to 1564. Shingen and Kenshin contested each other for control of the plain of Kawanakaj ...

in 1561. Masatada later fought at 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 ...

as a senior Takeda officer. By the year of 1563 Masatada went on to fight at the Battle of Usuigatoge and Musashi Matsuyama, but was killed a year later in what would be defined as rare for any standard samurai: a horse riding accident. There is one incident which gave Masatada a stronger name for himself despite being rather eccentric in nature: when Masatada had confronted one of his wounded retainers who suffered from physical bleeding that would not cease flowing, he advised him to drink horse feces and water to support the clotting of his blood — considered among Japanese culture as a folklore. The man was expectingly hesitant in doing so, but when Masatada himself consumed some of the concoction, he was encouraged to follow suit and reportedly recovered.

References

Amari family information
(in Japanese)
Short biography of Masatada
(in Japanese) 1543 births 1564 deaths Samurai {{Samurai-stub