His background is unknown, but he is generally considered to have been from the Saga-Genji, the same clan of MINAMOTO no Atsuru (Atsuru MITA), Musashi gon no suke (provisional assistant governor of Musashi Province) because he had a one character name.
素性は不明だが、一般的には一字名から武蔵権介の源宛（箕田宛）と同族の嵯峨源氏と推測されている。