Konoe Iehiro was a son of Konoe Motohiro and Shinanomiya Tsuneko, and was known as a poet, painter, and calligrapher. He served as kampaku beginning in 1707, as sesshô from 1709 to 1712, and as Daijô daijin beginning in 1710.
He married the First Princess (daughter of Emperor Reigen) in 1683,[1] and had two children with her before her tragic death in childbirth on 1688/4/15. Afterward, his mother Shinanomiya took over much of the work of caring for and raising Iehiro's two children, though he and the children visited one another constantly. His daughter Tokugimi went on to marry Tokudaiji Kintomo, and his son Konoe Iehisa followed in his father's footsteps, serving as sesshô, kanpaku, and dajô daijin, and being granted the rank of jugô (aka jusangô), second in rank only to emperors and empresses, the latter an honor that Iehiro himself had declined.[2]
References
- Arai Hakuseki, Joyce Ackroyd (trans.), Told Round a Brushwood Fire, University of Tokyo Press (1979), 314n69.