Konoe Nobuna was the third child of Konoe Motohiro and Shinanomiya Tsuneko. His older siblings were Konoe Hiroko and Konoe Iehiro.
Nobuna was sickly as a child, and his mother's diary relates a number of occasions of her serious concern for his health. Immediately following his genpuku (coming of age) in 1682, he was formally adopted by former Minister of the Center Ôimikado, upon the orders of Emperor Reigen, responding to the childless Ôimikado's desires for a son. He remained chronically ill, however, and returned to his parents' home in 1684/6 as a result of his illness, dying there several months later on 10/27, at the young age of 15.
References
- Cecilia Segawa Seigle, "Shinanomiya Tsuneko: Portrait of a Court Lady," in Anne Walthall (ed.), The Human Tradition in Modern Japan, Scholarly Resources, Inc. (2002), 17-18.