Although it remains poorly understood, many family trees and documents show that he had an origin in the Sanjo family, a family of pedigree of Court nobles and the main line of the Kanin Line of the Northern House of the Fujiwara clan.
かなり不明な点が多いが系図などによると元々は藤原氏藤原北家閑院流の嫡流にあたる公家の名門、三条家の人間とするものが多い。