Due to the early death of Seigen the ninth, Seigen the tenth was hastily adopted as the husband for a daughter of the family, but the succession to the head of the family and Meiji Restoration happened around the same time; during the time when the family's patron bakufu collapsed and tea ceremony was declining, he took great pains to maintain the family business.
10代正玄は9代正玄の早世により急遽婿養子となった人物だが、家督相続が明治維新と重なり、庇護者である幕府が崩壊、茶道も衰退する中、家業の保持に苦心した。