Okada Izō
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Okada Izō (岡田 以蔵, 1832–June 3, 1865), born Yoshifuru (宜振), was one of the four members of the Hitokiri, a band of assassins active in Japan during the late Tokugawa shogunate in the 1860s. He and Tanaka Shimbe worked for Takechi Hanpeita as political assassins attempting to kill everyone who supported the Tokugawa Shogun over the Emperor. Okada started out as a poor uneducated peasant, but because of his skill and his strong fighting spirit he quickly distinguished himself, becoming one of the most feared and renowned Hitokiri. Several films feature him as protagonist, most notably Hideo Gosha's Hitokiri (1969) and Takashi Miike's Izo (2004).
The character Udo Jin-e from the anime and manga series Rurouni Kenshin was originally based on Izo, though the author admits that the character ended up becoming nothing like Izo.
