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."

This bakufu title identifies a magistrate or municipal administrator with responsibility for governing and maintaining order in the shogunal city of Kyoto.

The Kyoto machi-bugyo were the central public authorities in this significant urban center. These men were bakufu-appointed officials fulfilling a unique role. They were an amalgam of chief of police, judge, and mayor. The machi-bugyo were expected to manage a full range of administrative and judicial responsibilities.

Each machi-bugyo was involved in tax collection, policing, and firefighting; and at the same time, each played a number of judicial roles –- hearing and deciding both ordinary civil cases and criminal cases.

In this period, the machi-bugyo were considered equal in status to the minor daimyō. At any one time, there were as many as 16 machi-bugyo located throughout Japan; and there was always at least one in Kyoto.

Shogunal city

During this period, Kyoto ranked with the largest urban centers, some of which were designated as a "shogunal city." The number of such cities rose from three to eleven under Tokugawa administration.