Nakaoka Shintaro

• Born: 1838
• Died: 1867
• Japanese: 中岡 新太郎 (Nakaoka Shintarou)

Photograph of Nakaoka Shintaro

A village headman (shoya) from Tosa with the right to carry two swords, Nakaoka was very active in the loyalist movement. A friend and associate of Sakamoto Ryoma, Nakaoaka assisted in efforts to bring Choshu and Satsuma together in their anti-Bakufu alliance. Nakaoka sustained fatal injuries during the assassination of Ryoma, with whom he was staying, at their hideout in the storehouse of the Omiya, a soy seller’s shop in the Kawaramachi district of Kyoto. Although he lingered for two days before succumbing to his wounds, Nakaoka was unable to positively identify his and Ryoma's assassins.

References

• Hillsborough, Romulus. RYOMA- Life of a Renaissance Samurai. Ridgeback Press, 1999
• Jansen, Marius B. Sakamoto Ryoma and the Meiji Restoration. Columbia University Press, 1994.