This article attempts to clarify the process of writing and copying the diary of the Tokugawa Shogunate through an analysis of the Keeper of the Diary (Nikki-gakari 日記掛) and comes to the following conclusions. To begin with, the office of Diary Keeper was created sometime between 1737 and 1746, consisting of one supervisor and two assistants. The Keeper was to direct the various Bakufu offices to submit to him reports of their activities and then hand them to the Diary Secretariat (Nikki-Kata Omote-Yuhitsu 日記方表右筆) for entry into the Bakufu diary. This secretariat was looked after by one supervisor and one assistant rotating on a monthly basis, and the system which lasted until at least 1822. Secondly, since no copies of the Bakufu dairy existed at the time the Keeper was set up, the office issued a report in 1791 describing the reproduction of the diary and how much of it had been preserved or lost. Consequently a project was launched to copy the extant parts of the diary, with talented scribes from outside the office specially assigned to copy the content recorded between 1631 and 1790. From that time on, the Keeper and Diary Secretariat cooperated in making the copies, thus marking a significant change in how the Bakufu dairy was recorded. Another copying project was conducted during the Koka 弘化 Era (1844-47) when the Ohikaecho 御扣帳 copy of the dairy was completed.
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