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.

Pre-Edo period

In the Heian period (794–1185), the post or title of bugyō would be applied only to an official with a set task; once that task was complete, the officer would cease to be called bugyō. However, in the Kamakura period (1185–1333) and later, continuing through the end of the Edo period (1603–1868), posts and titles came to be created on a more permanent and regular basis. Over time, there came to be 36 bugyō in the bureaucracy of the Kamakura shogunate. In 1434, Ashikaga Yoshinori established the Tosen-bugyō to regulate foreign affairs for the Ashikaga shogunate. 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.

Edo period

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.

List

Meiji period

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. For example, the commander-in-chief of artillery under the early Meiji government was called the Hohei-bugyō. As the new government passed its numerous reforms, the term bugyō was soon phased out of usage.