Kitamura family

...an official who governed a castle town or commercial city in the early modern period. It was used in cities such as Edo, Kofu, Fukui, and Nagasaki as the name for the official who governed the general town. However, in Osaka and Sakai, they were called general townsman, and the names varied depending on the place, such as machidai-doshiyori and general townsman. The machi-doshiyori in Edo were originally called "Edo-juku no toshiyori." There were three families, Naraya, Taruya, and Kitamura, and they were bestowed corner houses in Nihonbashi Honcho 1-chome, 2-chome, and 3-chome, respectively. At first, they not only governed the town, but also maintained the highways.

*Some of the terminology that refers to the Kitamura family is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…近世の城下町や商業都市で町を支配する役人。とくに総町を支配する役人の名称として，江戸，甲府，福井，長崎などの都市で用いられた。ただし，大坂，堺などでは総年寄といい，ほかに町大年寄，総町年寄頭など，呼び方は場所により多様であった。　江戸の町年寄は，はじめ〈江戸宿の年寄〉と呼ばれていたようである。奈良屋，樽屋，喜多村の3家があり，それぞれ日本橋本町一丁目，二丁目，三丁目の角屋敷を拝領していた。はじめは町中の支配だけではなく，街道の整備なども行っていた。…

※「喜多村家」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報