Four Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Four Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu (幕末四大人斬り, Bakumatsu Shidai Hitokiri^?) was a term given to four samurai during the Bakumatsu era in Japanese history. The four men were Kawakami Gensai, Kirino Toshiaki (also known as Nakamura Hanjirō), Tanaka Shinbei, and Okada Izō. They opposed the Tokugawa shogunate (and later, supported the Meiji Emperor). These four samurai were warrior elite and widely considered undefeatable by normal people. The word hitokiri literally means "manslayer."

Along with the title of hitokiri, the four men were also referred to as "The Four Butchers" (四大肉屋, Shidai Nikuya) or "Heaven's Punishment against the enemies of Imperial restoration" (帝国復帰の敵に対する天誅, Teikoku fukki no teki ni taisuru tenchū). Most of them came from the Chōshū-Satsuma domains, which were largely anti-shogunate at the time.

[edit] References in fiction

• Hitokiri is a 1969 film directed by Hideo Gosha and starring Shintaro Katsu as Okada Izo.
• The manga and anime series Rurouni Kenshin is about a former hitokiri based loosely on Kawakami Gensai.