Editing Tokugawa shogunate (section)

===Rōjū and wakadoshiyori===
The ''[[rōjū]]'' ({{lang|ja|老中}}) were normally the most senior members of the shogunate.<ref name="mikiso perez 2015" /> Normally, four or five men held the office, and one was on duty for a month at a time on a rotating basis.<ref name="mikiso perez 2015" /> They supervised the ''[[ōmetsuke]]'' (who checked on the daimyos), ''machi''-''bugyō'' (commissioners of administrative and judicial functions in major cities, especially Edo), ''{{ill|ongoku bugyō|ja|遠国奉行|lt=|WD=}}'' (遠国奉行, the commissioners of other major cities and shogunate domains) and other officials, oversaw relations with the [[Imperial Court in Kyoto]], [[kuge]] (members of the nobility), daimyō, [[Buddhist temples in Japan|Buddhist temples]] and [[Shinto shrine]]s, and attended to matters like divisions of [[fief]]s. Other ''bugyō'' (commissioners) in charge of finances, monasteries and shrines also reported to the rōjū.<ref name="mikiso perez 2015" /> The roju conferred on especially important matters. In the administrative reforms of 1867 ([[Keiō Reforms]]), the office was eliminated in favor of a bureaucratic system with ministers for the interior, finance, foreign relations, army, and navy.

[[File:SakuradaGate2.jpg|thumb|Sakuradamon Gate of [[Edo Castle]] where [[Ii Naosuke]] was assassinated in 1860]]
In principle, the requirements for appointment to the office of rōjū were to be a ''[[fudai daimyō]]'' and to have a fief assessed at {{val|50,000}} ''[[koku]]'' or more.<ref name="mikiso perez 2015" /> However, there were exceptions to both criteria. Many appointees came from the offices close to the ''shōgun'', such as ''{{ill|soba yōnin|ja|側用人}}'' (側用人), [[Kyoto Shoshidai]], and [[Osaka-jō dai]].

Irregularly, the ''shōguns'' appointed a ''rōjū'' to the position of ''[[tairō]]'' (great elder).<ref name="mikiso perez 2015" /> The office was limited to members of the [[Ii clan|Ii]], [[Sakai clan|Sakai]], [[Doi clan|Doi]], and [[Hotta clan]]s, but [[Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu]] was given the status of tairō as well. Among the most famous was [[Ii Naosuke]], who was assassinated in 1860 outside the Sakuradamon Gate of [[Edo Castle]] ([[Sakuradamon Incident (1860)|Sakuradamon incident]]).

Three to five men titled the ''[[wakadoshiyori]]'' (若年寄) were next in status below the rōjū.<ref name="mikiso perez 2015" /> An outgrowth of the early six-man ''[[rokuninshū]]'' (六人衆, 1633–1649), the office took its name and final form in 1662. Their primary responsibility was management of the affairs of the [[hatamoto]] and [[gokenin]], the direct vassals of the ''shōgun''.<ref name="mikiso perez 2015" /> Under the ''wakadoshiyori'' were the ''[[metsuke]]''.

Some ''shōguns'' appointed a ''soba yōnin''. This person acted as a liaison between the ''shōgun'' and the ''rōjū''. The ''soba yōnin'' increased in importance during the time of the fifth ''shōgun'' [[Tokugawa Tsunayoshi]], when a wakadoshiyori, [[Inaba Masayasu]], assassinated [[Hotta Masatoshi]], the ''tairō''. Fearing for his personal safety, Tsunayoshi moved the ''rōjū'' to a more distant part of the castle. Some of the most famous ''soba yōnin'' were [[Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu]] and [[Tanuma Okitsugu]].