Miyake Family History

Japanese: variously written usually phonetically 三宅 ‘three houses’. In the 5th and 6th centuries Japanese rulers based in Yamato (now Nara prefecture) established royal rice-growing and storage estates called 屯倉 (miyake though this word's true pronunciation is tonsō) throughout their realm in order to increase their income and consolidate their power.

Many unrelated stewards and residents of these estates or their descendants adopted the term as a surname, which is listed in the Shinsen shōjiroku. Bearers of this name, now found mostly in west-central Japan, spread throughout Japan.

However, many of their descendants later took other surnames.