This building was a detached house belonging to the Abe family, who were wealthy Yamaguchi merchants. It was located in a corner of the Abe property, which was used as the place in Yamaguchi where the lord of the Choshu Domain (roughly equivalent to today’s Yamaguchi Prefecture) would stay when traveling to and from the capital during the Edo period, which lasted from 1603 to 1868.
Toward the end of the Edo period, samurai from the Satsuma Domain and the Choshu Domain joined forces to overthrow the country’s military regime and restore Imperial rule. Before this time, the two domains had been bitter enemies, but the mediation of men like Sakamoto Ryoma of the Tosa Domain led them to form an alliance.
In September 1867, young leaders from the Satsuma Domain including Saigo Takamori and Okubo Toshimichi came to Yamaguchi and met with their Choshu counterparts, Kido Takayoshi and Ito Hirobumi, who later became Japan’s first prime minister. It was on the second floor of Chinryutei that these men held secret talks to establish an alliance, and pledged to form a coalition army to overthrow the shogun’s government.
This momentous event led to the Meiji Restoration and the dawning of modern Japan. And it took place here in Chinryutei. The building was later relocated two or three times before being moved to its current location in 1960.