He got engaged with a daughter of TAIRA no Kiyomori and seemed to be full of promise, but when his father Shinzei was killed in the Heiji War in 1159, the situation got worse.
平清盛の娘と婚約し、その前途は磐石であるかに見えたが、平治元年（1159年）の平治の乱において父信西が殺害されると状況は暗転。