Toshitsune Maeda

Japanese: 前田利常 - まえだ・としつね

Year of death: 12th October 1658 (7th November 1658)
Year of birth: Bunroku 2.11.25 (1594.1.16)
An outside feudal lord in the Edo period. The fourth son of Maeda Toshiie, the third lord of the Kaga (Kanazawa) domain. His mother was a concubine, Jufukuin. In 1605, he succeeded his brother Toshinaga as lord of the domain. After his brother's death in 1614, he also inherited his brother's retirement territory, and in 1634, he received a fief of 1,192,760 koku from the shogunate in Kaga, Noto, and Etchu. During this time, tensions with the Tokugawa shogunate remained, so he maintained a low profile so as not to be suspected of treason by the shogunate, and in 1621, when the shogunate suspected the Kanazawa domain of strengthening its military power, he traveled to Edo himself to explain and avoid any trouble. In the same year, he married Tokugawa Iemitsu's adopted daughter Achihime (daughter of Mito Tokugawa Yorifusa) to his eldest son Mitsutaka, and in the year 12, he married his third daughter Mitsuhime to Asano Mitsuaki, the lord of Hiroshima, as an adopted daughter of Iemitsu, in an attempt to reconcile with the shogunate. His governance included the development of the castle town of Kanazawa, a comprehensive land survey of Kaga and Noto in the Genna era, and in 1621 he established a salt monopoly, increasing salt production in the villages of Noto in particular, and in exchange for the salt tax, loaning rice from his domain to Noto, where rice could not be produced, as salt rice. In 1636, he handed over the family headship to Mitsutaka and retired, and gave his second son Maeda Toshitsugu 100,000 koku of land in the Toyama domain in Etchū, and his third son Maeda Toshiharu 70,000 koku of land in the Daishoji domain in Kaga province. After Mitsutaka's sudden death in 1645, his grandson Tsunanori took over as head of the family at the age of three and took control of the domain's administration again as guardian. He implemented the Kaisaku Shiho Law, which became the basis of the Kanazawa domain's agricultural administration, from 1651, and in 1656, he gave each village a village seal, completing the process. This resulted in a fixed tax rate for the villages and stabilized the domain's finances, while he also sought to increase taxes by uncovering hidden fields through land surveys, digging the Tatsumi irrigation canal, and developing new fields. He also implemented the separation of soldiers and farmers, and strengthened the Tomura system, appointing influential upper-class farmers to Tomura positions and incorporating them into the lowest levels of the domain's ruling organization. For vassals, he abolished the local chigyo system and introduced a stipend system, with the aim of unifying the domain's control over the domain and establishing a production base for the peasants.

(Izumi Seiji)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：万治1.10.12(1658.11.7)
生年：文禄2.11.25(1594.1.16)
江戸時代の外様大名。加賀(金沢)藩第3代藩主,前田利家の4男。母は側室寿福院。慶長10(1605)年兄利長を継ぎ藩主となる。19年兄の死後その隠居領も合わせ領し,寛永11(1634)年幕府より加賀,能登,越中3カ国で119万2760石の領知判物を受ける。徳川幕府との緊張関係が残っていた時代で,幕府より少しでも謀反の疑いをかけられないよう隠忍を保ち,寛永8年幕府が金沢藩の軍事力強化の疑いを持ったとき,自ら江戸へ出向き弁疏してことなきを得ている。また同10年には嫡子光高の室に徳川家光の養女阿智姫(水戸徳川頼房の娘)を迎え,12年には3女満姫を家光の養女として広島藩主浅野光晟に嫁がせるなど幕府との融和を図っている。その治政は城下町金沢の整備や元和の加賀,能登の総検地のほか,寛永4年から塩の専売制をしき,特に能登の浦々での塩生産を高め,その塩年貢の代償に米のとれない能登に塩手米として藩米を貸し与えている。16年家督を光高に譲り隠居し,次男前田利次を越中国富山藩10万石,3男前田利治を加賀国大聖寺藩7万石に分封している。正保2(1645)年光高の急死後,孫の綱紀が3歳で家督を継ぐと後見として再び藩政を握り,金沢藩農政の基本となる改作仕法を慶安4(1651)年から実施し,明暦2(1656)年に村御印を各村に与えほぼ完成させている。これにより村方の税率を一定化し藩財政を安定化させる一方,検地による隠田摘発や辰巳用水の開削および新田開発により年貢増徴を図った。また兵農分離を貫徹させ,十村制度の強化により有力上層農民を十村に任命し,領内支配組織の末端に組み込んでいる。家臣に対しては地方知行制を廃止し,俸禄制として藩による領内の一元的支配と農民の生産基盤確立に意を用いた。

(和泉清司)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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