Okada Izo (14 February 1838-11 May 1865) was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period and a member of the Tosa Loyalist Party.
Biography[]
Okada Izo was born in Iwamura, Tosa Domain in 1838, and he was self-taught in swordplay before being trained by Takechi Hanpeita. He trained in Edo from 1856 to 1857 before returning to Tosa, and he and Okada went on to practice martial arts in Chugoku and Kyushu and join the Sonnō jōi movement. In 1861, Okada joined Takechi's Tosa Loyalist Party, and he became one of the famous Four Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu (alongside Kawakami Gensai, Kirino Toshiaki, and Tanaka Shinbei), serving as an assassin for the pro-Imperial cause. He was banished from Kyoto by the pro-Shogunate cause in June 1864, and he was arrested for his involvement in Yoshida Toyo's assassination in 1865. He was executed by beheading on 11 May 1865.