were officials of the Tokugawa shogunate

Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

 in Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

 Japan. Appointments to this prominent office were usually fudai

Fudai

was a class of daimyo who were hereditary vassals of the Tokugawa in Edo period Japan. It was primarily the fudai who filled the ranks of the Tokugawa administration.-Origins:...

 daimyō

Daimyo

is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...

, but this was amongst the senior administrative posts open to those who were not daimyō. Conventional interpretations have construed these Japanese titles as "commissioner" or "overseer" or "governor."

Hakodate

Hakodate, Hokkaido

is a city and port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture.Hakodate was Japan's first city whose port was opened to foreign trade in 1854 as a result of Convention of Kanagawa, and used to be the most important port in northern Japan...

 is a port city on the southern coast of Hokkaidō island, separated from northern Honshū

Honshu

is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...

 by the Tsugaru Strait

Tsugaru Strait

is a channel between Honshu and Hokkaido in northern Japan connecting the Sea of Japan with the Pacific Ocean. It was named after the western part of Aomori Prefecture...

. In 1779, the Tokugawa shogunate exerted direct control over Hakodate, and rapid development in the area soon followed.

This bakufu tile identifies an official responsible for administration of the port city of Hakodate and neighboring territory of Ezo

Ezo

is a Japanese name which historically referred to the lands to the north of Japan. It was used in various senses, sometimes meaning the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō, and sometimes meaning lands and waters further north in the Sea of Okhotsk, like Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands...

. The bugyō were also directly responsible for the conduct of relations with foreigners in this region. The office was created in 1802. There were two men holding the title concurrently, one being at any given time in Hadodate and his counterpart would be in Edo; and periodically, the two would exchange places.

List of Hakodate bugyō

• Takeuchi Yasunori, 1854-1861.
• Muzuno Tadanori, 1862.
• Muragaki Awaji-no-kami, 1863
• Kurimoto Sebei, 1867.