In the Edo period, the following daimyo families were allowed to ascend to the rank: the head of Mito Tokugawa family of Mito Domain from three branch families, Echizen Matsudaira family of the Fukui Domain (4 out of 15 heads of family) from the kamon daimyo, Ii clan of Hikone Domain from the fudai daimyo (3 out of 17 heads of family), Maeda clan of Kaga Domain and Shimazu clan of Satsuma Domain from the tozama daimyo (only Narinobu SHIMAZU of 12 heads of family), and DATE clan of Sendai Domain (only Yoshikuni DATE of successive daimyos).
江戸時代は、御三家では水戸藩の水戸徳川家の当主、家門大名では福井藩の越前松平家（15代中4人）、譜代大名では彦根藩の井伊氏（17代中3人）、外様大名の加賀藩の前田氏や薩摩藩の島津氏（12代中、島津斉宣のみ）、仙台藩の伊達氏（歴代では伊達慶邦のみ）などの大名家が昇ることを許された。