A vassal who was given chigyo was called 'jito', but unlike the jito of the medieval period, he had an obligation to live in a rural castle town (hatamoto and gokenin were obliged to live in Edo) except when he had some official duties (as an exceptional case, sankin-kotai [a system under which feudal lords in the Edo period were required to spend every other year in residence in Edo] was exercised in Sendai Domain, and vassals had to live alternately in chigyo-chi and Sendai castle town alternately).
知行を受けた家臣を「地頭」とは呼ばれているが、中世の地頭とは違って職務上の必要による例外を除けば、城下町（旗本・御家人の場合は江戸）に在住する義務を負っていた（例外として、仙台藩では各家臣が仙台城下町と知行地との間を参勤交代していた）。