In historical textbooks, hatamoto in the Edo bakufu (the Tokugawa shogun family) was defined as the persons who were direct retainers of the shogun with a less than 10,000 koku of rice crop and were entitled to have an audience with the shogun (omemie or higher), but strictly considered, the situation was not so simple.
歴史教科書では、江戸幕府（徳川将軍家）の旗本は1万石未満の将軍直属の家臣で、将軍との謁見資格（御目見得以上）を持つ者と定義されているが、厳密にはそう単純ではない。