A famous liberal and progressive samurai from Tosa, Sakamoto Ry�ma was greatly respected by Akizuki, who was his bodyguard and close confidante. Sakamoto negotiated an alliance between Choshu-han and Satsuma-han, two Imperialist clans who had traditionally been bitter rivals towards each other; However, he was later assassinated in a Kyoto inn in 1867. (Source: Wikipedia)