[2] As a young teenager, he joined the Tokugawa shogunate's hatamoto force, eventually becoming a liaison agent (連絡係, renraku-gakari) for Isami Kondo.

[1] He did train with other stylists, mainly the eminent Yoshin-ryū school led by Hikosuke Totsuka, where he became friends with its exponent Morikichi Otake and fellow Tenjin Shinyō-ryū practitioner Daihachi Ichikawa.

Though Okuda was taller and heavier, he was defeated, being thrown repeatedly by koshi nage and deashi barai before Saigō finished him by yama arashi.

[5] Okuda didn't participate further in the Kodokan-Totsuka rivalry, and in 1893 he moved his field of activity to the Iwate Prefecture by invitation of governor Ichizo Hattori.

[1][4] His high knowledge and personal approach to throws were popularly nicknamed his "assassination technique" (殺気の技, sakki no waza), possibly in reference to his purported participation in the killings of the Shinsengumi.