This rank was conferred on nobles of the middle and lower ranks in Kyoto, riryo (government official) who went to Kyoto under the regime of the Kamakura bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun), members of the Minamoto clan, and influential gokenin (an immediate vassal of the shogunate in the Kamakura and Muromachi through Edo periods) from a family of pedigree, until the early Kamakura period.
鎌倉時代初期までは、京都の中級下級貴族と、鎌倉幕府において京都下りの吏僚、或いは源氏一門、有力な名門御家人などがこの位にあった。