Toshiie Maeda

Toshiie Maeda is one of the newcomers in Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends who is known in history as one of Nobunaga's fearsome generals. He is Keiji's uncle and served Hideyoshi until his dying days. Since he was historically good friends with "Monkey" (Hideyoshi), Nobunaga nicknamed Toshiie "Dog" (犬, Inu) as a comical reference to the archaic belief that dogs and monkeys are mortal enemies. Although Toshiie is never named as such in the games, his armor design in Xtreme Legends features a stylized dog around his shoulder pads.

He's symbolized by the kanji for "robust" (壮) and "honorable" (侠).

Samurai Warriors
Toshiie is Katsuie's young protege who aspires to live up to his mentor's reputation. To try to impress Katsuie, he enlists himself into Hideyoshi's troops. While they're dealing with the Mouri and Chosokabe clans, they hear news of Nobunaga's death at Honnoji. Though Toshiie is eager to return at once, Hideyoshi calmly stays put to finish their conflict at hand. Hearing this, Toshiie accuses him of being heartless and can't find himself to condone Hideyoshi's actions. In response, Hideyoshi beats Toshiie and gravely tells him to not look away from reality.

Once he hears Hideyoshi will soon face Katsuie in the battle, Toshiie rides alone to Katsuie's castle and despairingly pleads to join his idol. The old man refuses, saying that his time is already over, and the young man returns to the opposing side. Once Katsuie loses the battle and his castle is set on flames, Toshiie is finally faced with the grim reality of his profession. He vents his anger and sadness on an empathetic Hideyoshi by pummeling him with his fists. Whilst doing so, Toshiie makes an oath to keep an eye on his lord so that the lives lost for Hideyoshi's goal would not be in vain.

In his dream stage, Toshiie is tested by Nobunaga and Katsuie to demonstrate his leadership in a tournament of champions. His adviser is Kanetsugu and he instructs Toshiie to create a strong army before they invade Noabunaga's castle. The climax of the event is a duel with Katsuie.

Warriors Orochi
During the first game in the series, Toshiie is still a non-playable character for the Samurai army. In the Samurai story mode, Nobunaga orders him to extinguish the fire created by Da Ji at Honnoji. His success is up to the player as his path is blocked by several generals, which includes Sun Shang Xiang and others.

In Warriors Orochi 2, Toshiie and Magoichi are leading a failing defense of Ji Castle against Sun Wukong. They are saved by Xiahou Yuan's timely reinforcements. In gratitude, the men decide to serve the Wei forces. Toshiie then goes on to the Battle of Yamatai with Jiang Wei in their attempt to capture Da Ji and Himiko. However, the two are quickly overwhelmed by Da Ji's defenses and are near defeat until reinforcements come in form of Nagamasa Azai and Oichi with the Asakura. The newly refreshed army manages to gain a victory and capture Da Ji but allow Himiko to escape, much to the disappointment of the two young warriors.

While the Samurai Warriors series doesn't deal much with his relationship with Keiji Maeda (they do meet in Toshiie's dream stage), they meet in Yamatai and Toshiie expresses utter disgust on how Keiji willingly joined Orochi, calling him the Maeda family's disgrace. Keiji ignores all the complaints thrown at him and continues to fight him. As Toshiie has yet to know Keiji's hidden motives on joining Orochi, their feud continues unresolved at the end of Warriors Orochi 2.

Kessen
Toshiie is one of the starting generals in Kessen III. He is an expert spear man who wears outlandish clothing and dabs of red and white paint under his eyes. He's a rude, tough-as-nails brawler who is a childhood friend of Nagahide Niwa and a good comrade of Katsuie. Like Goemon in the Samurai Warriors universe, Toshiie acts like a kabukimono whilst joking around and dances during the army's celebration banquets. During such an occasion, he solidified the nickname Nobunaga gave to Nagahide, "Potato Samurai". He continues to fight for Nobunaga's cause even after his lord's apparent death at Honnoji.

His wife, Omatsu, also makes an appearance in the game as an extra character from the game's Enjoy disc.

Saihai no Yukue
Toshiie is briefly mentioned by Sakon and Mitsunari in Saihai no Yukue. He is Hideyoshi's friend who swore to protect the future of the Toyotomi clan with Mitsunari. However, he passes away sometime before the game begins. Mitsunari remarks that he is a sorely missed ally and strengthens his resolve to uphold his duty for Toshiie's behalf. When assassins come for Mitsunari's head, Hatsu, knowing that the two men were close, suggests escaping towards the Maeda manor for safety.

Personality
Toshiie is an aspiring young man who is just starting to carve his samurai reputation. New to warfare, he idealistically thrives for fame, believing that he can become well known through effort and valor alone. He thinks highly of Katsuie and affectionately calls his mentor, "Old Man" (叔父貴, Ojiki). They share a father-son relationship and Toshiie wants to make his idol proud of him. Taught to be a fearless and unthinking weapon, his disinclination for killing worthy opponents shows occasionally in battle. If his enemy is particularly honorable, for example, he'll try to bargain for their surrender. His willingness to communicate with others makes him one of Hideyoshi's closest vassals.

Voice Actors

 * Dan Jeannotte - Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends (English)
 * Takeshi Kusao - Samurai Warriors 2 (Japanese)
 * Katsuyuki Konishi - Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends and Warriors Orochi series (Japanese)
 * Wataru Takagi - Kessen III (Japanese)

Quotes

 * "I'm heading up in the world!"
 * "Notch that one up to me!"
 * "Where's he going?"
 * "Idiot, don't ask such stupid questions. Just think about it a bit."
 * Nagahide and Toshiie watching the newly wed Nobunaga and Kicho ride off; Kessen III

Weapons
* All listed lengths are for the spears on his back.

Early life
Toshiie was born in Owari Province, the fourth son of Maeda Toshimasa, who held Arako Castle. Toshiie served Oda Nobunaga from childhood (first as a page) and his loyalty was rewarded by being allowed to be the head of the Maeda clan, very unusual for a fourth son with no apparent failures among his elder brothers. Just like Nobunaga, Toshiie was also a delinquent, usually dressed in the outlandish style of a kabukimono. It is believed he also became a friend to Kinoshita Tokichiro (later Toyotomi Hideyoshi) in their youth. Just as Hideyoshi was known as Saru, 猴 or "monkey," it is believed that Toshiie was called Inu, 犬 or "dog" by Nobunaga. Due to a long-standing belief that dogs and monkeys are never friendly to each other, Toshiie is often depicted as reserved and stern, in contrast to Hideyoshi's talkative and easy-going nature.

Military career
Toshiie began his career as a member of the akahoro-shū, the unit under Oda Nobunaga's personal command. He later became an infantry captain (ashigaru taishō) in the Oda army. During his military career, Toshiie made the acquaintance of many important figures, such as Hashiba Hideyoshi, Sassa Narimasa, Akechi Mitsuhide, Takayama Ukon, and others. He also made some enemies and rivals such as Mitsuhide, who went on to assassinate Nobunaga; Toshiie also was a lifelong rival of Tokugawa Ieyasu. After defeating Asakura, Maeda fought under Shibata Katsuie in the Hokuriku area. He was eventually granted a han (Kaga Domain) spanning Noto and Kaga Provinces. Despite its small size, Kaga was a highly productive province which would eventually develop into the wealthiest han in Edo period Japan, with a net worth of 1 million koku; thus, it was nicknamed Kaga Hyaku-man-goku.

Toshiie benefited from a core group of very capable senior vassals. Some, like Murai Nagayori and Okumura Nagatomi, were retainers of long standing with the Maeda.

After Nobunaga's assassination at Honnō-ji by Akechi Mitsuhide and Mitsuhide's subsequent defeat by Hideyoshi, he battled Hideyoshi under Shibata's command in the Battle of Shizugatake. After Shibata's defeat, Toshiie worked for Hideyoshi and became one of his leading generals. Later somewhere during this time he was forced to fight another of his friends, Sassa Narimasa. Narimasa was greatly outnumbered and felled by Toshiie, following the major Maeda victory at the Battle of Suemori Castle. Before dying in 1598, Hideyoshi named Toshiie to the council of Five Elders to support Toyotomi Hideyori until he was old enough to take control on his own. However, Toshiie himself was ailing, and could manage to support Hideyori for only a year before he died as well.

Toshiie was succeeded by his son Toshinaga.