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Originally from [[Ogimi|Ôgimi]] village in northern [[Okinawa Island|Okinawa]], Maeda graduated from the [[University of the Ryukyus]], and was then introduced by painter [[Adaniya Masayoshi]] to a job as a designer at the lacquerware company [[Benbo|Benbô]], the leading producer of contemporary lacquerware designs in Okinawa at the time.<ref name=feenukaji9>"Shurijô Seiden ha sekai saidaikyû no urushi no ki. Shurijô no shûfuku, fukugen ga dekiru shokunin o sodatete moraitai"「首里城正殿は世界最大級の漆の器。首里城の修復、復元ができる職人を育ててもらいたい。」、''Fee nu kaji'' 南ぬ風 9 (2008/10-12), 3.</ref> He began showing his own work at exhibitions five years later. In 1968, he quit that job and opened his own "Maeda Lacquerware Atelier."

Originally from [[Ogimi|Ôgimi]] village in northern [[Okinawa Island|Okinawa]], Maeda graduated from the [[University of the Ryukyus]], and was then introduced by painter [[Adaniya Masayoshi]] to a job as a designer at the lacquerware company [[Benbo|Benbô]], the leading producer of contemporary lacquerware designs in Okinawa at the time.<ref name=feenukaji9>"Shurijô Seiden ha sekai saidaikyû no urushi no ki. Shurijô no shûfuku, fukugen ga dekiru shokunin o sodatete moraitai"「首里城正殿は世界最大級の漆の器。首里城の修復、復元ができる職人を育ててもらいたい。」、''Fee nu kaji'' 南ぬ風 9 (2008/10-12), 3.</ref> He began showing his own work at exhibitions five years later. In 1968, he quit that job and opened his own "Maeda Lacquerware Atelier."

In conjunction with the restoration of Shuri castle, Maeda created a red-lacquered, gilded, and painted royal throne with [[mother-of-pearl]] inlay, based on portraits of King [[Sho Shin|Shô Shin]] and other documentary sources, a project which took about two years. He also produced many of the plaques which now hang over the castle's gates, as well as reproductions of those bestowed upon the kings of Ryûkyû by Qing emperors.

Maeda played a key role in the [[1990]] establishment of the [[Urasoe City Museum of Art]], working with Urasoe City mayor Higa Noboru to convince a number of other government officials to support a plan for the city to purchase some 180 lacquerware objects displayed in a ''Ryûkyû shikki no bi'' ("The Beauty of Ryukyu Lacquerware") exhibit in 1984, to serve as the core of the collection for this new museum. When invited to serve as vice president of the new museum, however, Maeda declined.<ref>Asato Susumu 安里進, et al, "Maeda Kôin shi o itamu" 「前田孝允氏を悼む」, ''Shurijô kenkyû'' 首里城研究 23 (March 2021), 95.</ref>

He lived in the Kinjô-chô neighborhood of [[Shuri]] during the last decades of his life, and taught as a lecturer at the [[Okinawa Prefectural University of the Arts]] and [[Tokyo University of the Arts]]. In 2005, he was named director of the [[Urasoe Museum of Art]].<ref name=feenukaji9/>

 

He lived in the Kinjô-chô neighborhood of [[Shuri]] during the last decades of his life, and taught as a lecturer at the [[Okinawa Prefectural University of the Arts]] and [[Tokyo University of the Arts]]. In 2005, he was named director of the Urasoe City Museum of Art.<ref name=feenukaji9/>

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