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were magistrates or municipal administrators with responsibility for governing and maintaining order in the shogunal city of Edo. Machi-bugyō were
samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
officials of the
Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...
in
Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
Japan. Appointments to this prominent office were usually ''
hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the Shōgun, shogunates in History of Japan, Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred ...
'',Cunningham
p. 39.
/ref> this was amongst the senior administrative posts open to those who were not ''daimyōs''.Beasley, William G. (1955). ''Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 1853–1868'', p. 325. Conventional interpretations have construed these Japanese titles as "commissioner", "overseer" or "governor." During the
Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, there were generally two
hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the Shōgun, shogunates in History of Japan, Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred ...
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''.Cunningham, Don. (2004)
''Taiho-Jutsu: Law and Order in the Age of the Samurai'', p. 39.
/ref> 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.Cunningham, Don. (2004)
''Taiho-Jutsu: Law and Order in the Age of the Samurai'', p. 42.
/ref> 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 ''daimyōs''. 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 Shōgun 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.Murdoch
p. 46.
/ref> 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''.Yoshino, Jun
"Law Enforcement in the Edo Period"
''Japan Echo.'' Vol. 31, No. 3. June 2004.


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 is a business district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, situated in between the Ginza and Hibiya Park, southeast of the Tokyo Imperial Palace. The district takes its name from Oda Nagamasu (1547–1622), who was also known as Yūraku (有楽). Oda Naga ...
. *
Ōoka 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 Ma ...
, 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.Naito, Akira '' et al.'' (2003)
''Edo: the City that Became Tokyo,'' p. 26.
/ref> * Itakura Katsushige. * Tōyama Kagemoto. Takeuchi, Rizō. Nihonshi shōjiten (A Concise Dictionary of Japanese History). Kadokawa shoten, Tokyo (1985), p.352 * Yoda Masatsugu (1753).Screech, Timon. (2006). ''Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822,'' p. 243 n113. * Nanbu Toshimi (1753).


See also

*
Bugyō was a title assigned to ''samurai'' officials in feudal Japan. ''Bugyō'' is often translated as commissioner, magistrate, or governor, and other terms would be added to the title to describe more specifically a given official's tasks or jurisdi ...


Notes


References

* Beasley, William G. (1955). ''Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 1853–1868''. London: Oxford University Press; reprinted by RoutledgeCurzon, London, 2001. (cloth)] * Louis Cullen, Cullen, Louis M. (2003). ''A History of Japan, 1582-1941: Internal and External Worlds''.] Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
. (cloth) -- (paper) * Cunningham, Don. (2004)
''Taiho-Jutsu: Law and Order in the Age of the Samurai.''
Tokyo:
Tuttle Publishing Tuttle Publishing, originally the Charles E. Tuttle Company, is a book publishing company that includes Tuttle, Periplus Editions, and Journey Editions.
. (cloth) * Hall, John Whitney. (1955). ''Tanuma Okitsugu, 1719–1788: Forerunner of Modern Japan''. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

OCLC 445621
* Jansen, Marius. (1995). ''Warrior Rule in Japan''. New York: Cambridge University Press. ;
OCLC 31515317
* Naito, Akira, Kazuo Hozumi, and H. Mack Horto. (2003)
''Edo: the City that Became Tokyo''.
Tokyo:
Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...
. * Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005)
''Japan encyclopedia''.
Cambridge:
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...
.
OCLC 58053128
* Screech, Timon. (2006)
''Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822''.
London:
RoutledgeCurzon Routledge ( ) is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, a ...
.
OCLC 65177072
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edo machi-bugyo Government of feudal Japan Officials of the Tokugawa shogunate