​​Oishi Susumu was a famous swordsman from the Yanagawa domain. It was next to the Mike domain and Oishi's family were samurai who guarded the border between the two regions. They were skilled shihan (masters) of Aizu Kage Ryu, a now extinct style of swordsmanship, and taught in both Yanagawa-han and Mike-han. Oishi Susumu himself was very tall. He measured 210cm and chose to use a sword (shinken) and bamboo sword (shinai) that were considerably longer than the typical length