Changes

*''Japanese'': 町年寄 ''(machi doshiyori)''

*''Japanese'': 町年寄 ''(machi doshiyori)''

The ''machi doshiyori'' were assistants to the ''[[machi bugyo|machi bugyô]]'' (city magistrates) during the [[Edo period]].

The ''machi doshiyori'' were assistants to the ''[[machi bugyo|machi bugyô]]'' (city magistrates) during the [[Edo period]]. They were the highest-ranking [[chonin|townsmen]] (non-[[samurai]] commoners) in the city's official administrative ranks.

Neighborhood headmen (''[[nanushi]]'') of areas within [[Edo]] answered to the ''machi doshiyori'', and oversaw the ''[[goningumi]]'' (five-person collective responsibility groups), and guardhouses and gatehouses within their respective neighborhoods.<ref> Katô Takashi, "Governing Edo," in James McClain (ed.), ''Edo & Paris'', Cornell University Press (1994), 46.</ref>

Neighborhood headmen (''[[nanushi]]'') of areas within [[Edo]] answered to the ''machi doshiyori'', and oversaw the ''[[goningumi]]'' (five-person collective responsibility groups), and guardhouses and gatehouses within their respective neighborhoods.<ref>Katô Takashi, "Governing Edo," in James McClain (ed.), ''Edo & Paris'', Cornell University Press (1994), 46.</ref>

 

The positions of ''machidoshiyori'' were dominated since the 1610s by three families: the Naraya, Kitamura, and Taruya families. The Naraya and Teruya families had served [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] on the battlefield during the [[Sengoku period]], but gave up samurai status when they settled in Edo. The Kitamura, meanwhile, were dealers in herbal medicines who had previously served the [[Maeda clan]] of [[Kaga han|Kanazawa]] prior to settling in Edo.<ref>Katô, 54.</ref>

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