His mother was Saigo no tsubone, Sokushitsu (concubine) whose family home was the Saigo clan which was a family of the Kikuchi clan of Kyushu and a powerful Kokujin (Local lord) of Mikawa Province who had once filled the position of Shugodai (deputy of Shugo, provincial military governor) in the early Muromachi period.
母は側室の西郷局、実家の西郷氏は、九州の菊池氏一族で、室町初期には守護代をつとめたこともある三河国の有力な国人であった。