Hachijoin was a daughter of Bifukumonin to whom her father and mother had assigned most of their private estates, bestowing upon her great wealth and military power, which she later used to back Emperor Nijo as his junbo (a woman who was given the status equivalent to the emperor's birth mother).
八条院は美福門院の娘で、父母から荘園の大半を譲られて大きな財力・武力を有し、二条天皇の准母としてその後ろ盾となっていた。