Okada Izō was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period, feared as one of the four most notable assassins of the Bakumatsu period. He was a member of Tosa Kinnoto in his hometown, Tosa Domain. Izō and Tanaka Shinbei were active in Kyoto as assassins under the leadership of Takechi Hanpeita. His personal name was Yoshifuru.
Life
Okada Izo was born in Iwamura, Kami, Tosa as the eldest son of a country samurai Okada Yoshihira. He had a younger brother named Okada Keikichi who also joined the Kinnoto. First self-taught in swordplay, Okada later became a pupil of Takechi Hanpeita under Nakanishi-ha Itto-ryu school, a branch of Ono-ha Itto-ryu school. Following Takechi, in September 1856 Okada went to Edo and studied Kyoshin Meichi-ryu at Shigakukan, which was the training hall of Momonoi Shunzo. He returned to Tosa the following year. In 1860, Okada followed Takechi and practiced martial arts in Chugoku and Kyushu regions. Takechi considered that house of Okada would have difficulties with covering travel expenses and so asked the feudal lord of Oka domain in Bungo province to accommodate his student. In Oka, Izo studied Jikishi-ryu school of kendo. Around May, 1861, he left to Edo and returned to Tosa in April of the following year. The same year he joined Tosa Kinnoto, organized by Takechi and loyal to the Sonnō Jōi movement. For some reason however, he was later crossed off from the name list, along with Ike Kurata and 弘田恕助. Starting with Inoue Saichiro, who was the shita metsuke of the Tosa Domain, Izo assassinated Honma Seiichiro who was his comrade, Ikeuchi Daigaku, Mori Magoroku, Ogawara Juzo, Watanabe Kinzan, and Ueda Jonosuke, who were government officials and yoriki that belonged to the Kyoto City Magistrate, Tada Tatewaki. Those killings were conducted in the name of "Heaven's punishment", as Takechi called it. Izo became known as 'Hitokiri Izo' and feared, with a fellow hitokiri Tanaka Shinbei of Satsuma Province. Izo later worked as a bodyguard; in 1863 Izo, owing to the mediation of Sakamoto Ryoma, was hired by Katsu Kaishu. Three assassins attacked Kaishu, but when Izo cut one of them down and gave a roar, the remaining two assassins ran away. Katsu, confident in Izo's skill as his own bodyguard, made him become a bodyguard of John Manjiro. When they went to a western style grave that Manjiro had built, four assassins tried to attack Manjiro, but Izo had sensed the two ambushes that were hiding, and told Manjiro not to escape impulsively but to stay put with his back against the gravestone, and slew the two attackers down. The remaining two attackers made an escape. After the Coup of August 18 in 1863, the Kinnoto lost its momentum. Around June of 1864, he was captured by a shogunate official, and on the charge of being tattooed, he was banished from the capital Kyoto; at the same time, an official of the Tosa Domain captured him, and deported him to his hometown. In 1865 however, he was involved in yet another assassination, that of Yoshida Toyo, the regent of Tosa whom he killed before his rise to power. In the Tosa Domain, all his comrades of the Tosa Kinnoto were arrested for that assassination and the series of assassinations that took place in the capital Kyoto. With the exception of Takechi, who was a Joshi rank, they all underwent severe torture. Takechi, who learned of Izo’s arrest, wrote in a letter to his home, 'it is better for such a fool to die soon, and how his parents would lament over him for returning unashamedly to his hometown,’ which indicates his ill feeling towards Izo. Letters which were considered to be written by Tauchi Keikichi and so on tell that since his house stood in Shichiken machi, Izo was also disdainfully referred to as '七以.’ On learning of Izo’s arrest, some comrades both in and out of prison, including the Yamauchi family who was behind Yoshida's assassination, became afraid that Izo’s confession may put them on line, and planned to poison Izo; however, Takechi successfully argued against the plan. Izo endured severe torture, but he finally made a full confession and was beheaded on May 11 1865, and his head was put onpublic display. His death haiku read 'My mind that served for you came to nothing, and will only clear up after you’ve gone.' His grave is the family grave in the mountains near Azo Station at Kochi City, Kochi Prefecture. He was buried under his personal name, Okada Yoshifuru.
Izō in fiction
Several films feature Okada Izō as protagonist, most notably Hideo Gosha's Hitokiri and Takashi Miike's Izo. The NHKTaiga dramaRyōmaden featured him several times as one of Sakamoto Ryōma's friends and Takechi Hanpeita's assassins. He was portrayed by Japanese actor Takeru Sato. In manga, Nobuhiro Watsuki based the character Kurogasa Udō Jin-e of his series Rurouni Kenshin on Izō; the author admits that the character bears little resemblance to Izō. Hideaki Sorachi also based Nizo Okada, a character in his work Gintama, on Izō. Masami Kurumada, author of the popular Saint Seiyamanga series, more recently added a character to his work, called Capricorn Izō, who is inspired by Okada. Okada appeared as well in Kengo, a video game based on nine legendary swordsmen. In the said game, his full name is revealed to be Okada Izō Nobutoshi, and it is explained he uses a Goken style of swordsmanship, meaning to overpower the opponent through physical strength and audacious assaults, much like the Jigen-ryu used by some other Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu period. Okada appears as a character on the 2014 video game Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin! In 2018 he appeared in the mobile game Fate/Grand Order as an Assassin-class Servant.
