Hitokiri

"The four hitokiri of the Bakumatsu period" ( Japanese 幕末 四大 人 斬 り Bakumatsu shidai hitokiri ) was a name for four samurai of the Bakumatsu , at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in the Edo period of Japanese history.

background

The four samurai turned against the Tokugawa shogunate and later supported the emperor Meiji . They mostly worked in high offices and were assassins . Their job was to kill all enemies of their cause. The hitokiri initially lived hidden, nobody knew about them. They were only made known after Meiji 11 (1878), because they now fought publicly against the Shinsengumi . The word meaning of hitokiri is “human killer ”, it is composed of the Japanese 人 hito = “man” and Japanese 斬 り kiri or as a verb kiru = “cut, divide” with a knife or sword. They were also called "the four butchers" or "the heavenly vengeance on the enemies of the imperial restoration ". Most of them came from the Han Chōshū and Satsuma , who were against the Bakufu regime at that time .

Their names were Kawakami Gensai ( 河 上 彦 斎 , 1834–1871), Nakamura Hanjiro (1838–1877, also known as Kirino Toshiaki ), Tanaka Shimbē ( 田中 新 兵衛 ) and Okada Izō ( 岡田 以 蔵 , June 3, 1838–1865).

• 

  Photography by Toshiaki Kirino / Nakamura Hanjiro (1838–1877)

• 

  Lithograph by Kawakami Gensai (1834–1871)

reception

• Hitokiri is a 1969 film directed by Hideo Gosha and starring Shintarō Katsu as Izo Okada.
• The manga Rurouni Kenshin also deals with the hitokiri.

Web links

• Short biography of Shinbei Tanaka , 田中 新 兵衛 (Japanese).
• Short biography of Okada Izō , 岡田 以 蔵 (Japanese).
• Short biography of Kawakami Gensai , 河 上 彦 斎 ( Memento from March 16, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
• Pictures of Nakamura Hanjiru and Okada Izo ( Memento from July 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
• Image by Toshiaki Kirino / Nakamura Hanjiro

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Justin Wilson: ShadowStrike . AuthorHouse, 2013, ISBN 978-1-4918-1345-4 , section 'Kawakami', p. 477 ( books.google.de ).
2. ↑ Stephen Turnbull: The Samurai Swordsman: Master of War . Frontline Books, 2008, ISBN 978-1-78383-861-5 , pp. 181-182 ( books.google.com ).
3. ↑ hito. In: Japanese German. pauker.at, accessed on August 28, 2016 . 
4. ↑ Kirino Toshiaki portrait on mfa.org, accessed on August 28, 2016.
5. ↑ Nakamura Hanjirō / Kirino Toshiaki two images on myjapanesehanga.com, accessed on August 28, 2016.
6. ↑ La Historia Compartida - Kawakami Gensai. In: cincodays.com. March 4, 2015, Retrieved August 28, 2016 (Spanish). 
7. ↑ Tom Mes: Midnight Eye review: Hitokiri (Hitokiri, 1969, Hideo Gosha). In: midnighteye.com. Retrieved August 28, 2016 . 
8. ↑ Rurouni Kenshin Manga. In: mangafox.me. Retrieved August 28, 2016 .