son of regent Taneie, was a court noble

Kuge

The was a Japanese aristocratic class that dominated the Japanese imperial court in Kyoto until the rise of the Shogunate in the 12th century at which point it was eclipsed by the daimyo...

 of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. His life spanned the Sengoku

Sengoku period

The or Warring States period in Japanese history was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The name "Sengoku" was adopted by Japanese historians in reference...

, Azuchi-Momoyama

Azuchi-Momoyama period

The came at the end of the Warring States Period in Japan, when the political unification that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate took place. It spans the years from approximately 1573 to 1603, during which time Oda Nobunaga and his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, imposed order...

, and early Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

s. He served as kampaku

Sessho and Kampaku

In Japan, was a title given to a regent who was named to assist either a child emperor before his coming of age, or an empress. The was theoretically a sort of chief advisor for the emperor, but was the title of both first secretary and regent who assists an adult emperor. During the Heian era,...

-sadaijin

Sadaijin

, most commonly translated as "Minister of the Left", 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 initial appearance of the Sadaijin in the context of a central...

 and daijō daijin, rising to the junior first rank. He was kampaku during the reign of Emperor Go-Nara

Emperor Go-Nara

Emperor Go-Nara was the 105th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He reigned from June 9, 1526 until September 27, 1557, at the end of the Sengoku period. His personal name was Tomohito .-Genealogy:He was the second son of Emperor Go-Kashiwabara...

. Nobutada

Konoe Nobutada

was a Momoyama period Japanese courtier known as a poet, calligrapher, painter and diarist. Having no legitimate son, he adopted his nephew Nobuhiro as his heir...

 was his son.

Sakihisa was active in political and military circles. He was a member of the Konoe family

Konoe family

The Konoe family is a branch of the Fujiwara clan, a powerful noble family in Japan. As one of the five regent houses, the Konoe family monopolized the offices of Sessho and Kampaku along with Takatsukasa, Kujō, Ichijō and Nijō families. They are collectively known as the Five regent houses.With...

, a prominent branch of the Fujiwara clan. His younger sister was the wife of the daimyo

Daimyo

is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...

 Asakura Yoshikage

Asakura Yoshikage

) was a Japanese daimyo of the Sengoku period, who ruled a part of Echizen Province.Born in Ichijodani Echizen, Yoshikage ascended to the head of the Asakura clan in 1548. He proved to be adept at political and diplomatic management, markedly demonstrated by the Asakura negotiations with the...

. Sakihisa found favor with Oda Nobunaga

Oda Nobunaga

was the initiator of the unification of Japan under the shogunate in the late 16th century, which ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was also a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. His opus was continued, completed and finalized by his successors Toyotomi...

, and accompanied him to Kōshū

Kai Province

, also known as , is an old province in Japan in the area of Yamanashi Prefecture. It lies in central Honshū, west of Tokyo, in a landlocked mountainous region that includes Mount Fuji along its border with Shizuoka Prefecture....

 on his campaign against the Takeda clan. His daughter Sakiko was adopted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

was a daimyo warrior, general and politician of the Sengoku period. He unified the political factions of Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle...

 and became a consort to Emperor Go-Yōzei

Emperor Go-Yozei

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

, giving birth to his son Emperor Go-Mizunoo

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.This 17th century sovereign was named after the 9th century Emperor Seiwa and , translates literally as "later;" and thus, he could be called the "Later...

.

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.