The area of present-day Ten-ei was part of ancient
Mutsu Province and formed part of the holdings of
Shirakawa Domain during the
Edo period. After the
Meiji Restoration, it was organized as part of
Iwase District in the
Nakadōri region of
Iwashiro Province. The villages of Makimoto, Yumoto, Oya and Hiroto were established on April 1, 1889, with the creation of the modern municipalities system. The village of Ten-ei was formed on March 31, 1955, with the merger of the villages of Makimoto, Yumoto, and a portion of Hiroto with the village of Osato. Its population was above 10,000 in the 1950s, and this was the highest its population ever was. Many of the houses in the village suffered severe damage from the 2011
Tohoku earthquake, after which Ten-ei has experienced accelerated population decline. Additional population losses before and after the earthquake were due to the community being far from key sites. ==Economy==