It is said to have originated as a teahouse in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Fushimi Castle, to have been moved to Edo by Date Masamune, and finally to have been brought to Matsushima by his son Date Tadamune.
According to A.L. Sadler, the earliest extant example of a space attached to a chashitsu (room intended for the tea ceremony) that is describable as a mizuya exists at the Taian, a chashitsu designed by Sen Rikyū.
The Omotesenke estate, known by the name of its representative tea room, the "Fushin-an" (不審庵), was where Sen Rikyū's son-in-law, Sen Shōan, reestablished the Kyoto Sen household after Rikyū's death.