Asano Naganori
In the eyes of the Tokugawa shogunate, "hatamoto" were retainers who had served the family from its days in Mikawa onward. However, the ranks of the "hatamoto" also included people from outside the hereditary ranks of the Tokugawa house. Retainer families of formerly defeated grand families like the Takeda, Hōjō, or Imagawa were included, as were cadet branches of lord families. Also included were heirs to lords whose domains were confiscated, for example Asano Daigaku, the brother of Asano Naganori, local power figures in remote parts of the country who never became "daimyōs"; and the families of Kamakura and Muromachi periods "Shugo" (Governors): some of these include the Akamatsu, Besshō (branch of the Akamatsu), Hōjō, Hatakeyama, Kanamori (branch of the Toki), Imagawa, Mogami (branch of the Ashikaga), Nagai, Oda, Ōtomo, Takeda, Toki, Takenaka (branch of the Toki), Takigawa, Tsutsui, and Yamana families. The act of becoming a hatamoto was known as .