Kuroda Toshinori served as a bushō from the Sengoku to early Edo periods.  As a retainer of the Kuroda clan, he was included among a group of retainers called the Twenty-Four Elite of the Kuroda and, within this group, the Eight Tigers of the Kuroda.  He had the common name of Shirōta.

On 3/4 of 1561, Toshinori was born as the third son of Kuroda Mototaka in Himeji in Harima Province.  Kuroda Yoshitaka (Josui) was his older brother of a different mother.

From 1577, Toshinori served Hashiba Hideyoshi (later known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi).  In 1583, he participated in the Battle of Shizugatake.  Owing to his contributions, he was later assigned to Hashiba Hidenaga.

In 1587, Toshinori served in the Pacification of Kyūshū.  Around this time, he underwent a baptismal ceremony in Yamaguchi in Suō Province.  After his older brother, Yoshitaka, received the territory of Buzen Province, Toshinori became a retainer of the Kuroda and was granted 2,000 koku as remuneration.  In 1592, Toshinori served as a general in the Bunroku Campaign on the Korean Peninsula.  After returning to Japan, he adopted the name of Yōshin.  During the second expedition to Korea known as the Keichō Campaign from 1597 to 1598, Toshinori served in a battalion of hatamoto, or direct retainers of the administration.  In 1600, at the Battle of Sekigahara, Toshinori guarded Nakatsu Castle in Buzen Province.  After his nephew, Kuroda Nagamasa, became the lord of the Fukuoka domain, Toshinori’s fief was increased to 12,000 koku.  After the death of his older brother, Yoshitaka, Toshinori donated a portrait of Yoshitaka to the Sōfuku Temple.

Toshinori died on 3/5 of Keichō 17 (1612) at the age of fifty-two.