Toyotomi Hidetsugu
In 1585 he got into troubles with kanpaku Nijō Akizane in relation to Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his planned appointment to sadaijin, the position Nobusuke held at the time of the dispute, today known as "kanpaku sōron" (). The court meant to appoint Nobusuke to kanpaku succeeding to Nijō Akizane who had been appointed to this position this year. Generally this succession seemed inevitable but those two disagrees in details. Both issued their opinion of letters to the court and the dispute was not settled at the court. Then both visited Hideyoshi to justify each of their opinions. Consequently, Hideyoshi asked for kanpuku position instead of sadaijin which the court had originally meant to give him. For enabling this appointment, since only males of Sekke was considered to be eligible to kanpaku position, Hideyoshi also asked for adoption to Konoe Sakihisa, the father of Nobutada and the contemporary family head of the Konoe, with a promise that Nobusuke would succeed to Hideyoshi as kanpaku. This promise however didn't come true and Toyotomi Hidetsugu, a nephew of Hideyoshi was appointed to kanpaku in 1591. In this year in disappointment Nobutada resigned from sadaijin and entered into his retirement.