were members of the ''

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

'' class of feudal Japan. ''Yoriki'' literally means ''helper'' (ru - помощник) or ''assistant'' (ru - ассистент).

Description and history

''Yoriki'' assisted ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominal ...

'' (feudal lords) or their designated commanders during military campaigns in the Kamakura and

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

s.''Taiho-jutsu: law and order in the age of the samurai'', Don Cunningham, Tuttle Publishing, 2004 P.42
/ref> In the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...

, ''yoriki'' provided administrative assistance at governmental offices. Among different ''yorikis'' were the ''machikata yoriki'', who were in charge of police under the command of the ''

machi-bugyō were ''samurai'' officials of the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo period Japan, this was amongst the senior administrative posts open to those who were not ''daimyō''.Beasley, William G. (1955). ''Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 1853–186 ...

''. Below the ''yoriki'' were the ''dōshin''. In the city of Edo there were about 25 ''yorikis'' working each for the two ''machi-bugyō'' offices.

References

* Cunningham, Don (2004).
'Taiho-Jutsu: Law and Order in the Age of the Samurai'
'. Tuttle Publishing. p. 43. . Google Book Search. Retrieved on February 26, 2009. Officials of the Tokugawa shogunate Government of feudal Japan {{japan-hist-stub