A headman of a village called nanushi or shoya served as a bridge between the shogunate or domain government and the agricultural community, where no samurai was considered to live in principle, (with the exception of the Sendai Domain in which the Jikatachigyo system [the direct administration of the assigned fief by a shogunate retainer who transferred there] was preserved).
農村では名主、庄屋が幕府・大名と農村の橋渡しとして存在し、原則的に武士は農村にいなかったとされる（地方知行制を温存した仙台藩など例外はある）。