Konoe Sakihisa

• Birth: 1536
• Death: 1612
• Titles: Kampaku (1554), Sangû, Daijô daijin
• Other names: Konôe Harutsugu, Konôe Sakitsugu, Ryûzan
• Son: Konoe Nobusuke
• Distinction: Imperial regent

Sakihisa was the son of Konôe Taneie, a close confident of Shôgun Ashikaga Yoshiteru, and was named Kampaku in 1554 (this being during the reign of Emperor Go-Nara). He later spent some years in Echigo province as a guest of Uesugi Kenshin before returning to Kyoto in 1565, where he composed the Saga-ki. Relations between Sakihisa and Oda Nobunaga (who had entered Kyoto in 1568) gradually soured, until the former felt compelled to flee to Satsuma province in 1573. While in Satsuma he occupied himself with teaching poetry to Shimazu Narihisa. Thanks in part to the intervention of Hashiba (Toyotomi) Hideyoshi, Sakihisa was able to retun to Kyoto in 1575. He repaired his relations with Nobunaga and acted as a go-between when Oda and Kennyô Kosa were negotiating the surrender of the Ishiyama Honganji in 1580. He changed his name to Ryûzan in 1582 and took up the tonsure but remained active in court life, adopting Toyotomi Hideyoshi in order to provide the latter with a link to the Fujiwara in 1586. Hideyoshi in turn adopted Konôe's daughter and she later became a consort to Emperor Go-Yôzei.

References

• Initial text from Sengoku Biographical Dictionary (Samurai-Archives.com) FWSeal & CEWest, 2005