was a
Japanese female warrior of the
Aizu domain, who fought and died during the
Boshin War. Nakano, born in
Edo, was the daughter of Nakano Heinai, an Aizu official. She was thoroughly trained in the martial and literary arts, and was adopted by her teacher
Akaoka Daisuke. After working with her adoptive father as a martial arts instructor during the 1860s, Nakano entered Aizu for the first time in 1868. During the
Battle of Aizu, she fought with a
naginata (a Japanese
polearm) and was the leader of an
ad hoc corps of female combatants who fought in the battle independently, as the senior Aizu retainers did not allow them to fight as an official part of the domain's army. This unit was later retroactively called the .