The Tokugawa police forces

To maintain civil order and governmental authority, the shogunate military government devised an elaborate police system headed by two machi-bugyoh, each serving as a combination of town magistrate, judge, and police chief. Other sword-carrying samurai served as a patrolling police force. This official police force was relatively small compared to the overall population. Because of their limited manpower, the patrolling police force frequently augmented their ranks with various townsmen and even former criminals.

Community organizations in which local citizens banded together for mutual protection often complemented the role of the civil police authorities in maintaining order and dispensing justice. To better protect their own interests, local merchants also recruited and hired non-samurai police assistants and watchmen to bolster the city’s limited official police forces. Some provided full-time security services, while others were paid as needed, usually to supplement their other income sources.

The central authority in Edo was the machi-bugyohsho. More than a simple police department, though, the responsibilities of this particular office involved managing a full range of civil administration services and a judicial system for non-samurai citizens. Members of the samurai class were policed by ometuke (investigators) and the shogunate's internal intelligence and covert espionage arm, the metsuke (watchers). Finally, the jisha-bugyoh had jurisdiction over temples and shrines and was responsible for all religious affairs, including priests and their assistants.

To handle day-to-day affairs and the general police duties of their office, the machi-bugyoh had assistant magistrates called yoriki. Although they were the Edo magistrate's primary subordinates, yoriki were also victims of a rather unique class prejudice. As samurai, their social rank was far above the townsmen in which they held daily contact. 

On the other hand, they were shunned by their samurai contemporaries and discriminated against by their superiors because of their connections to death through the execution of criminals. Although the yoriki did not usually perform actual criminal executions, they were still barred from many things, such as entering the castle, for fear of possible contamination.

A chambara (samurai drama) actor reenacts the role of a yoriki, or feudal Japanese police officer, complete with jingasa (lacquered helmet) and jutte, in this publicity still photograph.

The yoriki developed their own individual style of dress, with neatly groomed hair and a uniform consisting of hakama (wide-leg skirt-like trousers), haori (overcoat), and daisho, the two swords which marked them as members of the samurai class. The yoriki were primarily section managers, responsible for directing the daily activities of their assistants, the doshin

Actual police patrol duties were performed by low-grade samurai called doshin. The doshin had their own distinctive uniform, wearing only one sword and tight-fitting trousers instead of the traditional hakama, even for ceremonial occasions.

As the lowest ranking police officers, there were three groups of doshin, called sanmawari or the three patrols. Like uniformed police today, the jomawari-doshin and rinjimawari-doshin made no attempt to conceal their identities, patrolling the streets of Edo with their jutte, the badge of their office, prominently displayed. The third group, the onmitsumawari-doshin, would often investigate criminal activities in disguises.

A prisoner is brought before the doshin.

Each doshin patrolled his assigned district along with several non-samurai followers. Full-time assistants were called komono. There were also part-time assistants called goyoukiki who often made their living working in other jobs as well, either as craftsmen or laborers. The doshin's assistants also carried a jutte as a symbol of their authority.

In addition to their subordinates and some neighborhood volunteers, the doshin also privately employed a number of unofficial assistants called okappiki. Okappiki were usually former criminals drafted as informants and low-level assistants. Although official authorities discouraged the use of okappiki, the demands of the doshin's position and the city's rapidly growing population made their service a practical necessity.

Keisatsu-jutsu

Since feudal times, Japanese policemen have been called keisatsu-kan. During the Edo Period, the police developed many techniques to arrest dangerous criminals, who were usually armed and frequently desperate. The martial arts used by the feudal police and their assistants to arrest suspects is keisatsu-jutsu.

While many keisatsu-jutsu methods originated from the classical Japanese schools of kenjutsu (swordsmanship) and jujutsu (unarmed fighting arts), the goal of the keisatsu-kan was to capture lawbreakers alive and without injury. Thus, they often used specialized implements and unarmed techniques intended to disarm or disable suspects rather than more lethal means.