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

The expression was in popular use to denote their numbers, but a 1722 study put their numbers at about 5,000. Adding the gokenin brought the number up to about 17,000.