In a broad sense, as explained above, the post of daikan extensively meant a deputy post, whose role was to perform duties in an appointed province like the post of mokudai and shugodai; but after the Muromachi period, daikan post came to mean, originally, a post which attended the rulings of lands under direct control of the Muromachi bakufu (Muromachi shogunate) on behalf of it, and later in the Sengoku period (period of warring states), daimyo (Japanese territorial lord) followed this practice and appointed their own daikan in lands under their direct control, thus the name of daikan came to represent whole posts who had the name.
このように、広義における代官職は国司の目代や守護代のように、任国の職務を代行する地位を広く指したが、室町時代以降となると、当初は室町幕府の直轄領地の支配を代行する地位を指すようになり、これに習い、戦国大名たちも自身の直轄領に代官を置くようになったことから代官を職名とする地位全般を指すようになった。