How close Kunishige and Kamunabi were?

Many people in Kamunabi don't like Kunishige even though he is the reason Kamunabi exist and the war ended. But we see people espcially the higher ups seems to look like they get along with Kunishige like old friends like how one of them call Chihiro better looking than Kunishige to believe that Chihiro is his son. I think the higher ups don't hate Kunishige.