Hatamoto

A hatamoto (旗本, "Guardian of the banner") was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan.

In the eyes of the Tokugawa shogunate, hatamoto were retainers who had served the family from its days in Mikawa onward.

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.

The dividing line between the upper hatamoto and the fudai daimyōs'—the domain lords who were also vassals of the Tokugawa house—was 10,000 koku.

One example of such a promotion is the case of the Hayashi family of Kaibuchi (later known as Jōzai han), who began as jikatatori hatamoto but who became fudai daimyōs and went on to play a prominent role in the Boshin War, despite their domain's relatively small size of 10,000 koku.

Men from hatamoto ranks could serve in a variety of roles in the Tokugawa administration, including service in the police force as yoriki inspectors,[9] city magistrates, magistrates or tax collectors of direct Tokugawa house land, members of the wakadoshiyori council, and many other positions.

Famous hatamoto include Jidayu Koizumi, Nakahama Manjirō, Ōoka Tadasuke, Tōyama Kagemoto, Katsu Kaishū, Enomoto Takeaki, Hijikata Toshizō, Nagai Naoyuki, and the two Westerners William Adams and Jan Joosten van Lodensteijn.

In the novel Shōgun (subject of a 1980 television series, and a 2024 remake), the protagonist Pilot John Blackthorne, loosely based on William Adams, eventually rises in the service of Lord Toranaga to become samurai and hatamoto.