 Along with the Suminokura and Gotō families, the Chaya were one of the top merchant families in Edo period Kyoto.Chaya Shirōjirō Kiyonobu (1545-1596), likely the first of the line, was the son of a rōnin of the Nakajima family, descended from lords of a territory in Owari province.His father, a friend of Shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiteru, was crippled in the wars of the Sengoku period.