Yukishiro Tomoe was the eldest daughter of a samurai, a low-level bureaucrat who served the Tokugawa Shogunate in Edo. Her only sibling was her younger brother Enishi, who viewed her as a surrogate parent because of their mother's death shortly after his birth.

As required by the Shogunate, she practiced Buddhism. She kept diaries to record her inner thoughts and emotions, which she found difficult to express more openly.