He served Asano Naganori as the head chamberlain () for the Asano estate, supervising the daily running of the castle and the samurai. Due to the Tokugawa rules which required all the daimyos to spend every other year in Edo (now called Tokyo) the chamberlain was a very important man and the defacto ruler of the estate when the daimyo was away. Having attained this office at a rather young age, he is said to have had the implicit trust of his lord.