Starting in 1720, the Magistate's Office complex served as a check point for ships and vessels going into and coming out of Edo Bay (now Tokyo Bay) ..... It was located along Yokosuka's southeastern coast, as shown in this model:
A similar facility to check on land-based travelers & traffic along the Tokaido Road was built up at Hakone. It later was closed and fell to ruin, but was excavated and rebuilt as a museum in 2007:
A couple of things, in particular, the checkpoint officials looked for when they did their interviews and inspections were: (1) guns and (2) women ..... so, this came to be called IRI-TEPPO DE-ONNA "guns going in, women coming out"...
Keeping guns from being smuggled into Edo was obviously to maintain public order and control & crime prevention, etc. --- all important to the ruling Tokugawa (Shogunate) government.
As for departing women, the Shogunate had a system where the regional Samurai Lords (Daimyo), who could be pretty independent & powerful, were required to send their wives or other important family members to live in Edo, as hostages ..... so, naturally, there were instances of wives or daughters who tired to get out of Edo to reunite with their husbands or families, etc. --- hence the strict checks at Uraga and Hakone.
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