In the eyes of the Tokugawa Shogunate, hatamoto were retainers who had served the family from its days in Mikawa onward. However, the ranks of the hatamoto also included people from outside the hereditary ranks of the Tokugawa house. Retainer families of formerly defeated provincial strongmen like Takeda, Hōjō, or Imagawa were included, as were branch families of feudal lords. Also included were heirs to lords whose domains were confiscated (for example, Asano Daigaku, the brother of Asano Naganori), The act of becoming a hatamoto was known as .
Many hatamoto fought in the Boshin War of 1868, on both sides of the conflict.
The hatamoto remained retainers of the main Tokugawa clan after the fall of the Shogunate in 1868, and followed the Tokugawa to their new domain of Shizuoka. The hatamoto lost their status along with all other samurai in Japan following the abolition of the domains in 1871.
The line between hatamoto and gokenin, especially amongst hatamoto of lower rank, was not rigid, and the title of hatamoto had more to do with rank rather than income rating. In the context of an army, it could be compared to the position of an officer. Throughout the Edo period, hatamoto held the distinction that if they possessed high enough rank, they had the right to personal audience with the shogun (these hatamoto were known as ome-mie ijō). All hatamoto can be divided into two categories, the kuramaitori, who took their incomes straight from Tokugawa granaries, and the jikatatori, who held land scattered throughout Japan. Another level of status distinction amongst the hatamoto was the class of kōtai-yoriai, men who were heads of hatamoto families and held provincial fiefs, and had alternate attendance (sankin kotai) duties like the daimyo. However, as kōtai-yoriai were men of very high income in terms of the spectrum of hatamoto stipends, not all jikatatori hatamoto had the duty of alternate attendance. The dividing line between the upper hatamoto and the fudai daimyo—the domain lords who were also vassals of the Tokugawa house—was 10,000 koku. city magistrates, magistrates or tax collectors of direct Tokugawa house land, members of the wakadoshiyori council, and many other positions.
The expression was in popular use to denote their numbers, but a 1722 study put their numbers at about 5,000. Adding the gokenin brought the number up to about 17,000.
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