was a Japanese statesman,

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

and ''

kugyō is the collective term for the very few most powerful men attached to the court of the Emperor of Japan in pre- Meiji eras. The term generally referred to the and court officials and denoted a court rank between First Rank and Third Rank un ...

'' during the late

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

. He is the founder of the

Konoe family is a Japanese aristocratic family.Edmund Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Konoe," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 24 retrieved 2013-8-13. The family is a branc ...

and the father of

Konoe Motomichi was a ''Kugyō'' (high-ranking Japanese official) from the late Heian period to the early Kamakura period. His father was Motozane, the founder of Konoe family, and his mother was a daughter of Tadataka. Among his sons is Iezane. His wife is t ...

Life and career

Motozane was born in 1143, to his father

Fujiwara no Tadamichi was the eldest son of the Japanese regent ('' Kampaku'') Fujiwara no Tadazane and a member of the politically powerful Fujiwara clan. He was the father of Fujiwara no Kanefusa and Jien. In the Hōgen Rebellion of 1156, Tadamichi sided with the E ...

. Motozane married the daughter of Fujiwara no Tadataka, whom he later divorced, and remarried to Taira no Moriko, the fourth daughter of

Taira no Kiyomori was a military leader and ''kugyō'' of the late Heian period of Japan. He established the first samurai-dominated administrative government in the history of Japan. Early life Kiyomori was born in Heian-kyō, Japan, in 1118 as the first so ...

. At the age of 16 he assumed the position of ''kampaku'',

, to

Emperor Nijō was the 78th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1158 through 1165. Genealogy Before his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name (his ''imina'') was Morihito''-sh ...

, becoming the head of the

Fujiwara clan was a powerful family of imperial regents in Japan, descending from the Nakatomi clan and, as legend held, through them their ancestral god Ame-no-Koyane. The Fujiwara prospered since the ancient times and dominated the imperial court until th ...

. He died at the age of 24, a year after he became ''sesshō'', or regent, to

Emperor Rokujō was the 79th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1165 through 1168. Genealogy Before his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name (his ''imina'') was Nobuhito''-sh ...

, leaving his wife Taira no Moriko windowed at the age of 12. His descendants later came to be known as the

, one of the Five ''sessho'' families, taking its name from Motozane's Kyoto residence on Konoe-Ōji (近衛大道) road.

Family

* Father:

*Mother: Minamoto no Kunizane's daughter *Legal wife ( 正室): Taira no Moriko,

's daughter * Wife: Fujiwara no Tadataka's daughter ** Eldest son:

(1160-1233) * Wife:

Fujiwara no Akisuke Fujiwara no Akisuke (, 1090–1155) was a ''waka'' poet and nobleman active in the Heian period Japan. One of his poems is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. A member of the Fujiwara clan, he was also known as Sakyō no Daibu Akisuke (). His fat ...

's daughter ** Second son: Awataguchi Tadayoshi (1164-1225) ** Daughter: Konoe Michiko (b.1163) married

Emperor Takakura was the 80th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1168 through 1180. Genealogy Before his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name (his ''imina'') was Norihito''-shi ...

* Wife: Minamoto no Moritsune's daughter ** ??? (覚尊) * unknown ** ??? (祐覚) ** ??? (道鑑)

References

Fujiwara clan Konoe family 1143 births 1166 deaths People of Heian-period Japan {{japan-noble-stub