Kanzaki Narikane (神崎成兼)
Taro Narikane KANZAKI (year of birth and death unknown) settled in Akune-in (Akune City) from the domain of Takae and took a daughter of 司執印氏図嘉房 at Nitta-jinja Shrine (Satsumasendai City) to wife, and changed his name from Kanzaki to 'Taro Narikane AKUNE.'
He was the first generation of the Akune, or Bakune, clan.
Kanesuke, a son of TAIRA no Hidemoto who was Daigen (inspector at the third highest rank of the four administrative ranks of the ritsuryo period) in Dazai-fu (local government office in Kyushu region) and who had a family lineage in the Taira family, was conferred Jugoinoge (Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade), governed a land in Kanzaki, Hizen Province, and called himself Kanzaki; his son Kaneshige occupied Takae-go, Satsuma County, and Akunein, both of which he held a position of inshi (official of the In no cho, or Retired Emperor's Office).
When the Taira family went into decline and the Minamoto clan took control of the government, Taro Narimichi KANZAKI, son of Kaneshige willingly became gokenin (immediate vassal) of the Kamakura bakufu and became the feudal lord of Takae and Akune again. Taro Narikane KANZAKI was Narimichi's son.
The Akune clan was the oldest gozoku (local ruling family) that ruled the Akune region as a feudal lord in the end of Heian period, between 1124 and 1593. Although its ninth family head Yoshitada had his territory taken by the Sasshu-Shimazu family which was established in 1451, the Akune clan changed the name of its area from "莫祢" to"阿久根," written in three characters, and accommodated themselves as karo (chief retainers) of the Sasshu family, and the Akune clan succeeded their position as karo for generations until its fourteenth family head Yoshiteru AKUNE, but in concert with the breakup of the Sasshu-Shimazu family, they also ended up leaving the long-ruled territory of Akune.