The Tokugawa State

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great cadet houses bowed to them. Outside the castle they enjoyed precedence ju died there was no public singing, dancover daimyo processions. When a ro ing, or music allowed for three days, and daimyo would send messages of ju ; they were clearly condolence. Most of the central bureaucracy reported to ro the fulcrum of the Edo administration. The bakufu retained within its territory each of the great cities of Edo, Osaka, and Kyoto as well as Nagasaki. The city magistrates for the great centers of Edo and of Osaka were also in important posts; they too operated on a monthly alternation system, with one on duty in the Edo home ofce and the other at his post. Kyoto, for the imperial court, and Nagasaki, for its foreign trade, were similarly governed. Where technical knowledge was required rank became less important than bugyo ) were bannermen competence. The superintendents of nance (kanjo with modest family stipends of 500 2,500 koku, which was augmented when in ofce with a salary of 3,000 koku. They were responsible for the shoguns granary lands, and the various bailiffs and intendants (daikan) who administered and taxed those lands reported to them. In all, close to ve or six thou), who in sand ofcials were supervised by the eight superintendents (bugyo ju . turn reported to the ro An ofce much remarked upon by writers was the intelligence service of metsuke, literally observer or inspector, that operated at all levels, from metsuke to yokome (side glance?) to keep the administration posted O on performance and apprised of political or religious subversion. There was not a hierarchy of political intelligence centered in a single apparatus of distrust, but it may well be that few administrative systems have built counterintelligence so prominently and permanently into all branches of their governing structures. The injunctions against Christianity and some forms of Buddhism provided the bakufu with excuse for checks that gave it the ability to maintain vigilance against any kind of dissidence. At the same time the network of inspectors made it possible to check on the performance and quality of local administration.

4. The Domains (han)

Three-quarters of Japan was under the control of daimyo; their domains stretched from Kyushu in the southwest to the fringes of Hokkaido in the north. The number of domains, and of daimyo, changed throughout the period as a result of rewards and penalties; over 500 existed at least briey, and at any point there were slightly more than 250. The Japanese term for domain, han, is a modern designation and dates from the nineteenth century, as does