Nagasaki bugyo

• Japanese: 長崎奉行 (Nagasaki bugyou)

The Nagasaki bugyô, or Nagasaki Magistrates, were the chief officials appointed by the Tokugawa shogunate to oversee local city matters and in particular matters relating to foreign trade at the port of Nagasaki. Though originally there were two appointed to the position - one based in Nagasaki, and one in Edo - the number was later doubled to four in the Genroku period, and then reduced to three, and then back to two by the end of the period. The Nagasaki bugyô enjoyed the same rank or level of prestige as the Osaka jôdai and Kyoto shoshidai, who held similar positions in those two cities.

The position was created by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and remained in place throughout the Edo period. From 1642 until 1670, the bugyô was assisted by a Nagasaki tandai shoku; that post was abolished in 1670. The bugyô also had four machi toshiyori under him who helped administer the inner city, while the daikan of the outer city reported directly to the financial magistrates (kanjô bugyô) in Edo.

Selected Nagasaki Magistrates

• Suetsugu Heizô (served ?-1629)
• Takenaka Shigeyoshi (served 1629-1633)
• Yamazaki Gonpachirô (served c. 1646)
• Komakine Masakata (served 1710-?)
• Hisamatsu Sadamochi (served 1710-?)
• Ôoka Kiyosuke (served 1711-?)
• Matsudaira Yasuhira (d. 1808)
• Mizuno Tadanori (active c. 1854)

References

• Marius Jansen, China in the Tokugawa World, Harvard University Press (1992), 11-12.