- Birth: 1593
- Death: 1658
- Sons: Maeda Mitsumasa (1613-1645), Maeda Toshitsugu, Maeda Toshiharu (1618-1660)
- Distinction: Lord of Kaga, Noto, and Etchû
- Titles: Chikuzen no kami
- Japanese: 前田利常 (Maeda Toshitsune)
Toshitsune was the 4th son of Maeda Toshiie. He was adopted as heir by his elder brother Toshinaga and became daimyô of the Maeda clan when Toshinaga retired in 1605. He led men against the defenders of Osaka Castle and fought at the Battle of Tennôji (1615).
In 1616, Toshitsune met with a formal diplomatic mission from the Siamese kingdom of Ayutthaya, in his home domain of Kaga; due to the sudden death of Tokugawa Ieyasu at that time, however, the mission did not continue on to Edo.[1]
Toshitsune retired in 1639 and was succeeded by his son Mitsumasa while placing a younger son, Toshiharu, in charge of the recently created Daishôji han and his 3rd son Toshitsugu in Toyama. By this point the Maeda clan had become one of the most powerful daimyô houses in Japan.
References
- Initial text from Sengoku Biographical Dictionary (Samurai-Archives.com) FWSeal & CEWest, 2005
- ↑ Cesare Polenghi, Samurai of Ayutthaya: Yamada Nagamasa, Japanese warrior and merchant in early seventeenth-century Siam. Bangkok: White Lotus Press (2009), 41.