Another World – Abeke

The History of Abeke

The ancestral history of this home begins in 1601, when Abe Seibē was asked to come to Iwami Ginzan to administer the silver mines as an official of the Tokugawa shogunate. He arrived from the province of Kai, which is present-day Yamanashi Prefecture, to join Ōkubo Chōan. He was the first generation in his family to serve in this capacity.
The present-day Abe house and compound (Abeke) was built in 1789, and particularly flourished from about 1818 under the sixth-generation head of the family, Abe Chūtaro, and, subsequently, under his son, Abe Hanzō. Hanzō was known as a man of letters, artist and practitioner of the Saisei School of tea ceremony.
In reading the diaries of Abe Hanzō, one can sense both the restrictions of the feudal status system under the Tokugawas as well as the joyful exuberance that was characteristic of certain spheres of daily life during the Edo period.
Abeke was designated a Shimane Prefectural cultural property in 1975.