In the Edo period, daikan as well as gundai (daikan administering relatively wide shogunal lands) were appointed by the bakufu under the control of kanjo bugyo (commissioner of finance), and they administered chigyo-chi of small sized hatamoto (direct retainers of the Edo bakufu) and tenryo (shogunal lands; the name tenryo was used after Meiji era).
江戸時代、幕府の代官は郡代と共に勘定奉行の支配下におかれ小禄の旗本の知行地と天領を治めていた。