Honnōji Disrupts Maeda Toshiie’s Northern Command

Maeda Toshiie held Noto under Nobunaga and campaigned in the northern provinces alongside Shibata Katsuie. The Honnōji attack in 1582 killed Nobunaga and his adult heir Nobutada while the northern commanders were away from Kyoto. Their army could no longer await instructions or rewards from those two men.

Toshiie returned from Etchū to Noto, where armed opposition included the monks of Isurugi-yama’s Tenpyōji and the Nukui and Miyake groups. Suppressing these disturbances and retaining his provincial base became immediate tasks. The succession struggle in the central provinces unfolded alongside this local fighting.

Toshiie remained associated with Katsuie and entered the Shizugatake campaign on his side in 1583. He withdrew and subsequently submitted to Hideyoshi, who confirmed and enlarged the Maeda position in Kaga. That later settlement placed him in Kanazawa. Honnōji first disrupted his existing northern command; the transfer to Hideyoshi followed a further campaign, rather than an automatic change of allegiance on the day Nobunaga died.