Maeda Masakatsu served as a bushō from the Azuchi-Momoyama to early Edo periods. His common names were Hanjūrō and Hanemon.

In 1581, Masakatsu was born as the second son of Maeda Gen’i (under anther theory, he was the third son).  From 1583, Gen’i served Oda Nobunaga’s second son, Oda Nobukatsu, and was appointed to serve as the Kyōto shoshidai, or official in charge of the Board of Retainers, an office in the Muromachi bakufu to guard the shōgun and give judgment on criminals in Kyōto.  This role had been performed by Murai Sadakatsu, a highly capable retainer of Nobunaga who was killed along with his sons in the course of the Honnō Temple Incident in the sixth month of 1582.

In 1600, Masakatsu participated in the Conquest of Aizu led by Tokugawa Ieyasu.  After the Oyama Deliberation, his father, Gen’i, was stationed at Ōsaka Castle so, at the Battle of Sekigahara, Masakatsu was detained in Edo.  In 1602, he was awarded a fief of 1,000 koku in the Kuwada and Funai districts of Tanba Province. 

In 1613, Masakatsu died at the age of thirty-three and was succeeded by his son, Maeda Masanobu.