were magistrates or municipal administrators with responsibility for governing and maintaining order in the shogunal city of Edo. They 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:...

 daimyo

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 daimyo. Conventional interpretations have construed these Japanese titles as "commissioner" or "overseer" or "governor."

During the 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....

, there were generally two hatamoto

Hatamoto

A was a samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as gokenin. However, in the Edo period, hatamoto were the upper vassals of the Tokugawa...

 serving simultaneously as Edo machi-bugyō. There were two Edo machi-bugyō-sho within the jurisdictional limits of metropolitan Edo; and during the years from 1702 though 1719, there was also a third appointed machi-bugyō.

The Edo machi-bugyō 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-bugyō were expected to manage a full range of administrative and judicial responsibilities.

Each machi-bugyō 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-bugyō were considered equal in status to the minor daimyo. At any one time, there were as many as 16 machi-bugyō located throughout Japan, and there were always two in Edo.

Shogunal city

During this period, Edo 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.

In Edo, a special system was devised to mitigate the possibility of municipal corruption. Initially, there were three machi-bugyō and then the number was reduced to one. The number of machi-bugyō was increased to two under Shogun Iemitsu. Except for one brief period in the early 18th century, this bifurcated administration remained the consistent pattern until the shogunate was abolished in 1868. There were two chief officials with equal powers and responsibilities; and each would alternately take control for one month before relinquishing the office to their counterpart. These two officials were each based in a separate location at some distance from each other. A reorganization of city government which focused greater attention on the two separate locations for these officials dates from 1719. Kodenmachō (小伝馬町)

Kita-machi-bugyō

Edo's north magistrate was called the , so-called because his official residence was physically to the north of the official location of his counterpart, the minami-machi-bugyō.

Minami-machi-bugyō

Edo's south magistrate was called the , so called because his official residence was physically to the south of the official location of his counterpart, the kita-machi-bugyō. In 1707, the Tokugawa shogunate established the Minami-machi Bugyō-sho, the office of one of the magistrates of Edo, in this area of modern Yūrakuchō.

• Ōoka Tadasuke
  Ooka Tadasuke
  was a Japanese samurai in the service of the Tokugawa shogunate. During the reign of Tokugawa Yoshimune, as a magistrate of Edo, his roles included chief of police, judge and jury, and Yamada Magistrate prior to his tenure as South Magistrate of Edo...
  
  , Ōoka Echizen-no-kami Tadasuke

Honjo-machi-bugyō

Edo's third magistrate was called the , who was responsible for the neighborhoods of Honjo and Fukagawa on the east bank of the Sumida River. A third machi-bugyō was deemed necessary in the years between 1702 through 1719.

List of Edo machi-bugyō

• Amano Saburobei Yasukage.
• Itakura Katsushige
  Itakura Katsushige
  was a Japanese daimyō of the Azuchi-Momoyama Period to early Edo period. He fought at the side of Ieyasu Tokugawa at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.Katsuhige's daimyō family claimed descent from the Shibukawa branch of the Seiwa-Genji...
  
  .
• Tōyama Kagemoto
  Toyama Kagemoto
  was a hatamoto and an official of the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Edo Period of Japanese history. His ancestry was of the Minamoto clan of Mino Province. His father, Kagemichi, was the magistrate of Nagasaki. Kagemoto held the posts of Finance Magistrate, North Magistrate, and subsequently the...
  
  .
• Yoda Masatsugu (1753).
• Nanbu Toshimi (1753).