Originally they were to represent the Tokugawa Shogunate, however, in Kyoto, far from Edo (present Tokyo, the hub of the Shogunate), they gained the Emperor's trust and didn't always speak for the Shogunate, but instead formed an original force of politics; for that reason recently there is a historian saying that they should be called the 'Ichikaiso Government.'
徳川幕府を代理する立場ではあるが、江戸を離れた京都にあって天皇の信任を得る一方、必ずしも江戸の幕閣の意向を代弁するわけではなく、相対的に独自の勢力を形成していたとする見方からこのように呼ばれる。