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...

 These bakufu appointees were responsible for administration of the port of Shimoda

Shimoda, Shizuoka

is a city and port in Shizuoka, Japan.As of 2010, the city had an estimated population of 25,054 and a population density of 242 persons per square kilometer...

 and foreign trade in the area.

This office was created in 1842, and it was held by two 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...

 who were appointed concurrently. At any given time, one would normally be in residence at Shimoda, and the other would be in Edo as part of an alternating pattern. Conventional interpretations have construed these Japanese titles as "commissioner" or "overseer" or "governor."

The numbers of men holding the title concurrently would vary over time, fluctuating from as few as five in number in 1859 to as many as nine at one time.

List of Shimoda bugyō

• Toki Yorimune, 1843-1844.
• Izawa Masayoshi, 1854-1855.
• Inoue Kiyonao, 1855-1859.