He was tied to Emperor Go-Daigo early in the latter's conflict with the Kamakura shogunate and was exiled to Shikoku, but returned to the capital during the Kenmu Restoration.
Later in his life, he was closely linked with the second Muromachi shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshiakira, and was assigned to the compilation of the Shinshūi Wakashū, the nineteenth imperial anthology of waka poetry, but died before it could be completed.
[1] He was implicated in the plot to overthrow the Hōjō regents,[1] captured in Rokuhara,[1] and exiled to Tosa Province.
[1] With the death of his cousin Nijō Tamesada in 1360, he became the central figure of the waka circle surrounding the shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiakira.
[1] In 1363, on Yoshiakira's request he was assigned to the compilation of the Shinshūi Wakashū,[1] but died the following year before his work was completed.