Born in Owari. His mother is said to have been the younger sister of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's mother (accounts differ), and he served Hideyoshi from childhood.
At Shizugatake he won the honour of the first spear and received the largest reward among the "Seven Spears of Shizugatake".
After the Shikoku and Kyushu campaigns he received Imabari in Iyo and became a daimyō.
He became lord of Kiyosu castle in Owari, a kinsman pledged to uphold the Toyotomi house.
At odds with Ishida Mitsunari since the Korean campaigns, after Maeda Toshiie's death he joined Katō Kiyomasa and others in trying to attack Mitsunari.
At the council at Oyama in Shimotsuke he reportedly declared for Tokugawa Ieyasu first, swaying the other lords. At Sekigahara he led the Eastern vanguard, fighting the Ukita fiercely.
He received Aki and Bingo and entered Hiroshima castle, developing the castle town and highways.
Suspected of sympathy for the Toyotomi, he was kept in Edo during the Siege of Osaka and could not take part.
Charged with repairing typhoon-damaged Hiroshima castle without shogunate permission, he was stripped of his domain and moved to a small fief at Takaino in Shinano.
He died at Takaino—a man of great valour whose life was torn between the Toyotomi and the Tokugawa.
Toyotomi HideyoshiMaeda ToshiieTokugawa IeyasuNene (Kōdai-in)Hosokawa TadaokiIkeda TerumasaUkita HideieTokugawa Hidetada
Katakura KagetsunaIshida MitsunariNaoe KanetsuguIi NaomasaKatō KiyomasaMaeda ToshinagaHosokawa GraciaKatō Yoshiaki
People of the Sengoku/Azuchi-Momoyama period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.