The Konoe Family (近衛家)

The Konoe Family was the premier court nobility of the sekke (Setsu Family). The family name came from Konoe Koji Street, in Heian-kyo. The actual surname is of the Fujiwara clan, which falls under the main branch of the family of Fujiwara Hokke. The Konoe group and Kujoryu School constituted the Sekkan Family (Sekkanke), but it is impossible to determine which family was the original.

Summary

The originator was FUJIWARA no Motozane or Motozane KONOE, the eldest son of FUJIWARA no Tadamichi.
The family name comes from the fact that the originator's son Motomichi KONOE called his house, which was located north of the Kyoto guardsman and east of Muromachi, 'Konoe-dono house.'
Yomei is another family name. The crest is the Konoebotan. The hereditary stipend during the Edo period was 1800 koku at the beginning and 2860 koku at the end of the period.
Dukedom after the Meiji Restoration
The family temple is Daitoku-ji Temple, in Kyoto.

In the middle Kamakura period the Takatsukasa Family, one of the gosekke (Gosetsu Family), was started as a branch family by Kanehira TAKATSUKASA, the fourth son of Iezane KONOE. It was temporarily schismatized during the period of the Northern and Southern Courts (Japan). During the early Edo period Nobuhiro KONOE, the fourth prince of the Emperor Goyozei, became the adopted heir.

The family produced great scholars of politics and chirographers (Sanmyakuin School (school of ancient calligraphy)), including Hisamichi KONOE and Nobutada KONOE during the Sengoku period (Japan). The family produced Hisatsugu KONOE, Motohiro KONOE, Iehiro KONOE and so on as a family of wisdom and righteousness during the Edo period. Particularly, Tadahiro KONOE, who enjoyed the deep confidence of Emperor Komei, worked as an adviser. Prime minister Fumimaro KONOE, of the early Showa period, came from the family's main branch. The conductor and composer Hidemaro KONOE is Fumimaro's younger brother from a different mother. The family head of the current Konoe Family, Tadateru KONOE, who is the president of the Japanese Red Cross Society and other organizations, is the second son of Morisada HOSOKAWA (a child of Fumimaro's daughter, who has married into another family) and became an adopted child of the wife of Fumitaka KONOE, a child of Fumimaro, to inherit the Konoe Family.