Maeda Yoshinori

Maeda Yoshinori (前田吉徳, September 10, 1690 – July 11, 1745) was a Japanese samurai during the Edo period, and the 5th daimyō of Kaga Domain in the Hokuriku region. He was the 6th hereditary chieftain of the Kanazawa Maeda clan.

Yoshinori was the third son of Maeda Tsunanori. His mother was a commoner and a concubine. From 1702, he was named heir and was given the childhood name of Katsumaru (勝丸) later Matsudaira Inuchiyo-maru, later becoming Toshitaka (利挙) and then Toshioki (利興). He underwent the genpuku ceremony with Shōgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi presiding and was renamed Yoshiharu (吉治). In 1708, he was wed to Matsuhime, the adopted daughter of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the daughter of Tokugawa Tsunanari of Owari Domain. In 1723, his father retired, citing ill health, and he became daimyō of Kaga Domain as Maeda Yoshinori.

Although Kaga Domain was stable politically, and had been accorded the same status in audiences in Edo Castle as one of the Gosanke, the economic position of the domain was growing precarious despite its one million koku status. Yoshinori's first task was to initiate a reform of domain finances. Spending had been profligate under the tenure of Tsunanori, partly to offset suspicions of the wealth of Kaga Domain by the Tokugawa shogunate. Yoshinori appointed one of his favourites, Ōtsuki Denzō, of ashigaru background, as his senior economic advisor and implemented an unpopular program of cutting expenses, curbing speculation in the rice market, and passing sumptuary consumption rules. Under this program, the domain's financial situation improved considerably, and Yoshinori appointed Ōtsuki to ever greater positions of authority. This caused great resentment amongst the senior retainers and on the death of Yoshinori in 1745 at the age of 56, there was a conservative backlash which upended many of the reforms.