[2] Akifusa was the son of Nishida Kiyosada, a retainer of Tokugawa Tsunashige, the daimyō of Kofu Domain.
Akifusa was noted for his backing of the Confucianist, scholar-bureaucrat Arai Hakuseki as a "brain" for the Tokugawa shogunate and his economic and political reform program.
After Ietsugu died and was replaced by Tokugawa Yoshimune, Akifusa's influence went into rapid decline.
He was relieved of all offices within the shogunate, and was transferred from Takasaki to the more remote Murakami Domain on the Sea of Japan in 1717.
Shortly after Akifusa's death, Manabe Akitoki was transferred to the newly created Sabae Domain, where his descendants lived to the Meiji restoration.