was a samurai retainer, karō

KARO

KARO is a radio station licensed to serve Nyssa, Oregon, USA. The station is owned by the Educational Media Foundation.It broadcasts a Contemporary Christian music format as part of the Air 1 network.-History:...

(senior advisor), and senior deputy commander in the service of the Shimazu clan

Shimazu clan

The were the daimyō of the Satsuma han, which spread over Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga provinces in Japan.The Shimazu were identified as one of the tozama or outsider daimyō clans in contrast with the fudai or insider clans which were hereditary vassals or allies of the Tokugawa clan,The Shimazu were...

 in the early 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....

. Hisataka was born into the fifth generation of the Shimazu family line, adopting 'Kabayama' as his surname in respect to the birch (樺, kaba)-covered mountaintop (山, yama) upon which his castle domain had been constructed.

Upon the orders of clan head Shimazu Tadatsune

Shimazu Tadatsune

was a tozama daimyo of Satsuma, the first to hold it as a formal fief under the Tokugawa shogunate, and the first Japanese to rule over the Ryūkyū Kingdom...

, with the permission of Shogun

Shogun

A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...

 Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu

 was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan , which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara  in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but...

, Hisataka set forth from Kagoshima

Kagoshima, Kagoshima

is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture at the southwestern tip of the Kyūshū island of Japan, and the largest city in the prefecture by some margin...

 harbor with over 100 ships carrying roughly 3,000 soldiers in March 1609. He was intent on militarily chastising the Ryukyu Islands

Ryukyu Islands

The , also known as the , is a chain of islands in the western Pacific, on the eastern limit of the East China Sea and to the southwest of the island of Kyushu in Japan. From about 1829 until the mid 20th century, they were alternately called Luchu, Loochoo, or Lewchew, akin to the Mandarin...

 for their perceived consistent gestures of defiance. Successful in the Invasion of Ryukyu

Invasion of Ryukyu

The invasion of Ryukyu by forces of the Japanese feudal domain of Satsuma took place in 1609, and marked the beginning of the Ryūkyū Kingdom's status as a vassal state under Satsuma...

, having faced little serious opposition, Hisataka received the command of governing the Ryukyu Islands, along with his deputy Honda Chikamasa, on Tadatsune's behalf. Hisataka is also known in some historical records as 呉済 'Gozai', a Chinese approximation of the Japanese pronunciation of 権左 'Gonza'..