Celtic moved 16 points clear at the Scottish Premiership match after Maeda scored a brace, with Jota, Callum McGregor and Yang Hyun-Jun on target in between.
Shayden Morris’ 90th-minute strike proved a mere consolation for Aberdeen, who sit third in the table but a massive 31 points behind Celtic after this thumping.
Rodgers reserved special praise for key forward Maeda, not only due to his goals but also his relentless work and efforts
He is a really important player for us and the symbol of the team and how we want to work, the Celtic boss said, after Maeda took his goal tally to 25 for the season.
He is not your traditional number nine, he moves in behind, anticipates things in the box when they drop, and is a wonderful figure to our team, the work ethic, mentality, humility within it and when he plays wide or central, he scores for us.”
Celtic have now won each of their last 10 home league games by an aggregate score of 37-1, though this result was much needed as a response to the last week.
The league leaders were dumped out the Champions League by Bayern Munich late on before a surprise 2-1 defeat to Hibernian preceded this crushing win against Aberdeen.