After the Kyoho era when hatamoto (bakufu retainers) and gokenin (retainers of the Kamakura bakufu) were organized into the bakufu bureaucracy, jikata kosha posts were often granted to ordinary citizens, and due to the fact that these appointees authored guides to domain administration, they were commonly called jikata kosha.
旗本・御家人の官僚化が進んだ享保年間以降は、民間からの登用が目立ち、しかも彼ら地方巧者は地方書の著者でもあったので、地方巧者という呼称が普及した。