Hitokiri

Hitokiri (人斬) was a term given to four different samurai during the Bakumatsu era in Japanese history. They were against the Tokugawa shogunate and in support of the Meiji Emperor. Hitokiri, literally meaning "Person Slayer", is a superlative name for this particular caliber of samurai warrior. These four samurai were warrior elite and widely considered undefeatable by normal people. Along with the title of Hitokiri, the four men were also referred to a "The Four Butchers" or "Heaven's Revenge against the enemies of Imperial restoration". Most of them came from the Choshu-Satsuma provinces, which were largely anti-Bakufu at the time. Three of these notable men were Kawakami Gensai, Tanaka Shimbe, and Izo Okada.

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Samurai: :For other uses, please see Samurai (disambiguation)...

Bakumatsu: are the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate came to an end. It is characterized by major events occurring between 1853 and 1867 during which Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as sakoku and transitioned from a feudal shogunate to the Meiji government. The major i...

Japan: For other uses, see Japan (disambiguation)....