Wikipedia
A was a samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as gokenin. However, in the Edo period, hatamoto were the upper vassals of the Tokugawa house, and the gokenin were the lower vassals. There was no precise difference between the two in terms of income level, but hatamoto had the right to an audience with the shogun, where gokenin did not. The word hatamoto literally means "at the base of the flag", and is often translated into English as "bannerman". Another term for the Edo-era hatamoto was , sometimes rendered as "direct Shogunal hatamoto", which serves to illustrate the difference between them and the preceding generation of hatamoto who served various lords.
Usage examples of "hatamoto".
The great Daimios and the Hatamotos have fallen out about this affair of Matagoro, and lately it has seemed as if they meant to come to blows.
Hatamotos, the more important places being held by the Fudai, or vassal Daimios of the Shogun.
So he built a house at Hanakawado, in Asakusa, and lived there with his apprentices, whom he farmed out as spearsmen and footmen to the Daimios and Hatamotos, taking for himself the tithe of their earnings.
The office of Taikun having been abolished, the Hatamotos no longer exist.
Sparrow's statement supported his belief that the ronin Tozawa was descended from Endo Munetsugu, as the hatamoto Kaibara was from Araki Yojiemon.
Samurai sentries, also half-naked, lolled until they saw him, then they bowed politely as he passed, watching him intently, because this was the incredible barbarian who was astonishingly favored by Lord Toranaga, to whom Toranaga had, unbelievably, granted the never-given-before-to-a-barbarian honor of hatamoto and samurai.
Sano had dispatched his servants and messengers to post notices warning Endo's descendants at the castle's checkpoints, on the city's notice boards, and at the gates of the daimyo and hatamoto estates.