Date Munenari

was the eighth head of the Uwajima Domain during the Late Tokugawa shogunate and a politician of the early Meiji era.

Early life Munenari was born in Edo, the 4th son of the hatamoto Yamaguchi Naokatsu. Munenari, then known as Kamesaburō 亀三郎, was a candidate for adoption by the heirless 7th generation Uwajima lord Date Munetada because Naokatsu's father was the 5th Uwajima lord, Date Muratoki.

Clan leader Munenari succeeded to headship in 1844. The tairō Ii Naosuke ordered Munenari's retirement in 1858. He was placed under house arrest.

He returned to prominence in the subsequent years of political maneuvering in Kyoto, as a member of the conciliatory kōbu-gattai (公武合体 union of court and bakufu) party. Late in Bunkyū 3 (1863), as a proponent of kōbu-gattai, he was made a member of the imperial advisory council (sanyō-kaigi 参与会議), together with Matsudaira Katamori and other like-minded lords. His stepson Mune'e was first created a count in the new peerage system, but was later promoted to marquess.

Munenari died at Imado in Tokyo in 1892, at age 75.

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