Based on the dying wish of Maeda Toshiie, Maeda Toshitsune secretly enshrined a figure of Toyotomi Hideyoshi on the grounds of a Buddhist temple on Mount Utatsu in 1616. It became a village shrine in 1873. In 1887, the shrine was moved to the town of Tono (now Owari-chō in Kanazawa). The shrine was moved to its present location in 1908, when it was also renamed Toyokuni Shrine.