Kamiya Kaoru , known as Kaoru Kamiya in the Media Blasters English-language dub and Kori Kamiya in the English Sony Samurai X dub, is a fictional character in the Rurouni Kenshin manga created by Nobuhiro Watsuki. In the story Kaoru is the instructor of a kendo school in Tokyo, Kamiya Kasshin-ryū (神谷活心流). The students leave when many people are killed by someone claiming to be the Hitokiri Battōsai (人斬り抜刀斎) from the Kamiya Kasshin-ryū", damaging the school's reputation. Kaoru is saved from the murderous impostor by the real Battōsai, Himura Kenshin, now a wanderer who has sworn to stop killing. During the series, Kaoru grows fond of Kenshin due to his good actions to society and becomes his ally.

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The story begins during the 11th year of the Meiji era in Japan (1878) and follows a former assassin from the Bakumatsu, known as Hitokiri Battosai. After his work against the bakufu, he becomes Himura Kenshin, a wandering swordsman who protects the people of Japan with a vow never to take another life. Watsuki wrote the series upon his desire to make a shōnen manga different from others published at the time, with Kenshin being a former assassin and the story taking a more serious tone as it continued.