was an early-

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They ...

, and the 3rd ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominall ...

'' of

Kaga Domain The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1583 to 1871.

in the

Hokuriku region The was located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lay along the Sea of Japan within the Chūbu region, which it is currently a part of. It is almost equivalent to Koshi Province and Hokurikudō area in pre-mod ...

of Japan. He was the 4th hereditary chieftain of the Kanazawa

Maeda clan was a Japanese samurai clan who occupied most of the Hokuriku region of central Honshū from the end of the Sengoku period through the Meiji restoration of 1868. The Maeda claimed descent from the Sugawara clan of Sugawara no Kiyotomo and Sugaw ...

. His

courtesy title A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but rather is used through custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title). In some con ...

s were ''Chikuzen-no-kami'' and ''Sakonoe-shosho''. His childhood name was "Inuchiyo" (犬千代). Mitsutaka was the eldest son of

Maeda Toshitsune was an early-Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 2nd ''daimyō'' of Kaga Domain in the Hokuriku region of Japan, and the 3rd hereditary chieftain of the Maeda clan. Toshitsune was a brother of Maeda Toshinaga and a son of Maeda Toshiie. He was ...

and his mother was Tamahime, the daughter of ''

Shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamaku ...

Tokugawa Hidetada was the second ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was bo ...

. His infant name was Inuchiyo and his childhood name was Toshitaka, In 1629, he underwent the ''

genpuku is a Japanese coming-of-age ceremony which dates back to Japan's classical Nara Period (710–794 AD). /sup> This ceremony marked the transition from child to adult status and the assumption of adult responsibilities. The age of participat ...

'' ceremony presided over by his uncle,

Tokugawa Iemitsu Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光, August 12, 1604 – June 8, 1651) was the third '' shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, w ...

, and was allowed to adopt the Matsudaira patronym as an honorific and was given one ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...

'' from Iemitsu's name, thus becoming "Mitsutaka". The Tokugawa clan and the Maeda clan attempted to maintain close relations though political intermarriage during this period, and Mitsutaka was married to Ōhime, the daughter of

Tokugawa Yorinobu was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period. Born under the name Nagatomimaru (長福丸), he was the 10th son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, by his concubine Kageyama-dono. On December 8, 1603, Yorinobu received the fief of Mito, then rated at 20 ...

Mito Domain was a Japanese domain of the Edo period. It was associated with Hitachi Province in modern-day Ibaraki Prefecture.kokudaka refers to a system for determining land value for taxation purposes under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo-period Japan, and expressing this value in terms of ''koku'' of rice. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Koku"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 54 ...

'' of 800,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

'', which was the lowest in Kaga Domain's history, but still larger than any other domain within the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

. A well-known story is that Mitsutaka received word of the birth of his son, Tsunanori just as he was departing Kanazawa for the return journey to

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

for his '' sankin kōtai'' obligation and became so excited that the party rushed back to Edo in a record seven days from Kanazawa. Mitsutaka was also accomplished in the

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; and the preser ...

, and was also known for his knowledge of both Japanese and Chinese literature. He was also regarded for his appearance, and became a favorite of Tokugawa Iemitsu. For a time, before Iemitsu had conceived an heir, Mitsutaka was considered a potential candidate to be adopted by Iemitsu to inherit the office of ''shōgun''. In 1645, at a

tea ceremony An East Asian tea ceremony, or ''Chádào'' (), or ''Dado'' ( ko, 다도 (茶道)), is a ceremonially ritualized form of making tea (茶 ''cha'') practiced in East Asia by the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. The tea ceremony (), literally transl ...

hosted by the ''

rōjū The , usually translated as ''Elder'', was one of the highest-ranking government posts under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council of Elders as a whole; under the first two ''shō ...

'', Sakai Tadakatsu, he suddenly fell over dead at the age of 29. His grave is at the Nodayama Cemetery in Kanazawa.

Family

*Father:

*Mother: Tokugawa Tamahime (1599 – 1622), daughter of

and Asai Oeyo *Wife: Tokugawa Ōhime (1627-1665), daughter of

of Wakayama Domain *Children (all by Ohime) **

Maeda Tsunanori was an Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 4th ''daimyō'' of Kaga Domain in the Hokuriku region of Japan. He was the 5th hereditary chieftain of the Kanazawa Maeda clan. His childhood name was "Inuchiyo" (犬千代). Biography Tsunanori wa ...

** Mankikumaru (1645-1649)

References

* Papinot, Edmond. (1948). ''Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan''. New York: Overbeck Co.

External links

Kaga Domain on "Edo 300 HTML"
(3 November 2007) {{DEFAULTSORT:Maeda, Mitsutaka 1616 births 1645 deaths Maeda clan Tozama daimyo People of Edo-period Japan