Toshinaga Maeda

Japanese: 前田利長 - まえだ・としなが

Year of death: May 20, 1614 (June 27, 1614)
Year of birth: Eiroku 5.1.12 (1562.2.15)
A daimyo from the Edo period. The second lord of the Kaga (Kanazawa) domain. The eldest son of Maeda Toshiie. His mother was Hoshuin (Maeda clan). He succeeded to the family headship in 1598, and the following year, after his father Toshiie's death, he became one of the Five Elders. In September of the same year, when Tokugawa Ieyasu made moves to invade Kaga, he sent his mother Hoshuin to Edo as a hostage, and made a peace deal by promising to take Tokugawa Hidetada's daughter Tamahime as a bride for his heir, Toshitsune. In the following year, he sided with the Tokugawa (Eastern Army) in the Battle of Sekigahara, and in the Western Army of Hokuriku, he was awarded the counties of Enuma and Nomi in Kaga Province, as well as the entire province of Noto for his younger brother Maeda Toshimasa, who had sided with the Western Army, and thus came to control most of Kaga, Noto, and Etchu. In 1610, he handed over the family headship to Toshitsune and retired to Toyama Castle (moving to Takaoka Castle in 1611), but he oversaw politics even during the early period of Toshitsune's domain administration. He sought harmony with the Tokugawa clan throughout his life, and Toshitsune married the daughter of Tokugawa Hidetada, and employed Honda Masashige, the second son of Honda Masanobu, a close aide to Ieyasu, and Masazumi's younger brother, as a senior vassal with a large stipend of 50,000 koku. In terms of agricultural policy, he developed new fields and conducted a general land survey of Echizen in 1617, and established taxation laws such as the silver per tuft system and the conversion of husband's labor to silver. He also took great care to control his vassals, and worked hard to ensure the survival of the Maeda clan as the era changed from Toyotomi to Tokugawa, so much so that in 1614, as his illness worsened, he even requested that his domain be left to the shogunate's will.

(Izumi Seiji)

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

Japanese:

没年：慶長19.5.20(1614.6.27)
生年：永禄5.1.12(1562.2.15)
江戸時代の外様大名。加賀(金沢)藩第2代藩主。前田利家の長男。母は芳春院(前田氏)。慶長3(1598)年家督を継ぎ,翌4年父利家の死後五大老に列した。同年9月徳川家康に加賀征討の動きがあると,母芳春院を江戸へ人質に出し,徳川秀忠の娘珠姫を嫡嗣の利常の嫁に迎えることを約束して和解した。翌5年関ケ原の戦では徳川方(東軍)に付き,北陸の西軍大名を征討しその功により,加賀国江沼,能美両郡と西軍にくみした弟前田利政の能登一国も還付されるなど加賀,能登,越中の大半を支配した。10年家督を利常に譲り,富山城(14年より高岡城へ移る)に隠居したが利常の藩政初期にも政治を総覧している。終生徳川氏との融和を図り,前述利常に徳川秀忠の娘を迎えたり,家康の側近本多正信の次男で正純の弟,本多政重を5万石の大禄で重臣に召し抱えている。その治政は農政では新田開発と慶長10年越中の総検地を行い,棟別銀制度や夫役の夫銀化を図るなど徴税法を整備した。さらに家臣団の統制にも意を用い,豊臣の世から徳川の世へ移り行くなかで,前田家の存立のために努力していたのであり,慶長19年には病が重くなるなかで,自分の領知を幕府の意にまかせる願いを出しているほどである。

(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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