Together with his father, he served in the armies of Tokugawa Ieyasu. During the 1575 Battle of Nagashino, he was famous for having written a brief letter to his wife, telling her to be careful to put of the fire and to feed his horses. Following Ieyasu's submission to Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the wake of the Komaki Campaign in 1584, Narishige was sent to Kyoto as a hostage. After supporting Ieyasu during the Battle of Sekigahara, his holding of 2,000 "koku" in Omi Province was increased to 5,000 "koku" in 1602. He was made "karō" of Ieyasu's son Matsudaira Tadanao in 1613 min Echizen Province, and received the 40,000 "koku" fief of Maruoka. Narishige also served during the 1614 and 1615 Sieges of Osaka. Soon after, when Tadanao was exiled by bakufu order, Narishige became an independent daimyo in his own right. His income was increased to 46,300 "koku" in 1623, and he spent the ensuing years strengthening his domain's political and logistical infrastructure, rebuilding the "jōkamachi" of Maruoka along a grid pattern, and improving its waterworks..