Bugyō

Bugyō (奉行) 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 jurisdiction.

[1] In 1587, a Japanese invading army occupied Seoul; and one of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's first acts was to create a bugyō for the city, replicating a familiar pattern in an unfamiliar setting.

[3] During the Edo period, the number of bugyō reached its largest extent as the bureaucracy of the Tokugawa shogunate expanded on an ad hoc basis, responding to perceived needs and changing circumstances.

In the early years of the Meiji Restoration, the title of bugyō continued to be used for government offices and conventional practices where nothing else had been created to replace the existing Tokugawa system.