(1536 – June 7, 1612), son of regent Taneie, was a court noble of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. His life spanned the

Sengoku The was a period in Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the feudal system of Japan under the Ashikaga shogunate. Various s ...

, Azuchi–Momoyama, and early

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

s. He served as kampaku-

sadaijin The ''Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary'', Kenkyusha Limited, was a government position in Japan in the late Nara and Heian periods. The position was consolidated in the Taihō Code of 702. The Asuka Kiyomihara Code of 689 marks the ini ...

and ''

daijō-daijin The was the head of the ''Daijō-kan'' (Great Council of State) during and after the Nara period and briefly under the Meiji Constitution. Equivalent to the Chinese (Grand Preceptor). History Emperor Tenji's favorite son, Prince Ōtomo, w ...

'', rising to the junior first rank. He was kampaku during the reign of

Emperor Go-Nara was the 105th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He reigned from June 9, 1526 until his death in 1557, during the Sengoku period. His personal name was Tomohito (知仁). Genealogy He was the second son of Emper ...

. Nobutada was his son. Sakihisa was active in political and military circles. He was a member 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 ...

, a prominent branch 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 ...

. His younger sister was the wife of the ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

Asakura Yoshikage was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period (1467–1603) who ruled a part of Echizen Province in present-day Fukui Prefecture. He was a regent of Ashikaga Shogunate. Yoshikage's conflicts with Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) resulted in his deat ...

. Sakihisa found favor with

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

, and accompanied him to Kōshū on his campaign against the

Takeda clan The was a Japanese samurai clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan reached its greatest influence under the rule of Taked ...

. His daughter Sakiko was adopted by

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

and became a consort to

Emperor Go-Yōzei was the 107th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Yōzei's reign spanned the years 1586 through to his abdication in 1611, corresponding to the transition between the Azuchi–Momoyama period and the Edo period ...

, giving birth to his son

Emperor Go-Mizunoo was the 108th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Mizunoo's reign spanned the years from 1611 through 1629, and was the first emperor to reign entirely during the Edo period. This 17th-century sovereign was n ...

. In 1582, Sakihisa received the appointment to the post of Daijō Daijin. He resigned the post later that year. In 1585, he adopted Hashiba (later Toyotomi) Hideyoshi. This gave Hideyoshi the Fujiwara legitimacy, clearing the way for his appointment as kampaku.

Family

Parents *Father:

Konoe Taneie , son of Hisamichi, was a ''kugyō'' or Japanese court noble of the late Muromachi period (1336–1573). He held a regent position kampaku from 1525 to 1533 and from 1536 to 1542. Sakihisa was his son. He had a daughter, Keifukuin Kaoku Gyokue ...

(近衛稙家, 1503 – 1566) *Mother: Kuga Keiko (久我慶子),Kuga Tsugen's daughter (久我通言) Consorts and issue: *Wife: Kita no Mandoroko (北政所) *Concubine: Court lady (家女房), Hatano Sōshichi's daughter (波多野惣七) **Son: Konoe Nobutada (近衛信尹; 1565-1614） *Concubine: Wakanabe Takeda's daughter (若狹武田氏) **Daughter:

Konoe Sakiko Konoe Sakiko (近衛前子; 1575 – August 11, 1630) was a member of the Japanese imperial court from the Azuchi-Momoyama period to the Edo period. She was a consort to Emperor Go-Yozei, and the mother of Emperor Go-Mizunoo. Her birth father was ...

(近衛前子)(1575 – August 11, 1630) also known as Chūwamon’in (中和門院) – consort of Emperor Go –Yozei *Concubine: Unknown **Son: Mikotozei (尊勢;d.1616), a priest at

Kōfuku-ji is a Buddhist temple that was once one of the powerful Seven Great Temples in the city of Nara, Japan. The temple is the national headquarters of the Hossō school. History Kōfuku-ji has its origin as a temple that was established in 669 b ...

**Daughter: Lady Koshoin (光照院) **Daughter: Unknown

References

This article is based on 近衛前久, retrieved from the Japanese Wikipedia on July 14, 2007. The Japanese article cites the following references: * Kengo Taniguchi, "Rurō no Sengoku Kizoku Konoe Sakihisa Tenga Ittō ni Honsō Sareta Shōgai" (Chūkō Shinsho, 1994) * Masanobu Hashimoto, "Kinsei Kuge Shakai no Kenkyū" (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 2002) {{DEFAULTSORT:Konoe, Sakihisa 1536 births 1612 deaths Fujiwara clan Konoe family Kuge People of Muromachi-period Japan People of Azuchi–Momoyama-period Japan People of Edo-period Japan 17th-century Japanese calligraphers 16th-century Japanese calligraphers