Yamato of One Piece

Oni Princess (jap. 鬼姫, Onihime) Yamato is the daughter of Emperor Kaidou, however she calls herself son of Kaidou as she would rather be exactly like Oden, who was a man.

Appearance

As a fan, Yamato wears similar clothes to Kozuki Oden. She wears a light-colored kimono, dark pants, and regular wooden sandals for shoes. Like Oden, Yamato also wears a tsuna, a large rope, on his back. She wears a handcuff on each of his wrists, which is a reference to Oden’s final moments. Yamato possesses long hair, which she has tied up in the back, and there are two horns protruding from it, as with most members of the Beasts Pirates.

Another small noticeable feature is that she has slightly more prominent eyebrows than one is used to from Oda’s drawing style regarding women.

Personality

Yamato has been a big fan of Kozuki Oden ever since he saw his execution. He found his logbook, which he considers his personal bible, and tries to resemble Oden as much as possible. This obsession even goes so far as to consider himself a man, and once told his father that he would want to become Oden himself.

He doesn’t seem to have a good relationship with his father and therefore offered his help to Luffy to fulfill the will of Oden.

He also showed patience with Luffy when he attacked him in the beginning and didn’t want to listen to him.

Skills & Strength

Yamato seems to have great fighting skills, as he was able to briefly knock Ulti unconscious from ambush with just one blow from his club, and also fended off several attacks from Luffy without much trouble. Ulti did find that his attack was nothing compared to Kaidou’s, however Ulti was bleeding after his attack, so Page One felt that Yamato shouldn’t undercut like that. Yamato’s fighting style itself seems to be based on his father’s, which is why he also uses an iron club as a weapon like his father. The name of the weapon is “Takeru”.

He is also proficient in armor and observation shaki as well as king shaki.

Yamato is the daughter of Emperor Kaidou (later he becomes a male because he is a transgender). Just like his father, he uses a Kanabō as a weapon, however his mace is not studded with sharp spikes. He has also eaten from a mythical zoan fruit called the Dog-Dog Fruit, model: Okuchi no Makami, which allows him to transform into a wolf-like creature.

He can perform the following attacks:

• Raimei Hakke
• Nari Kabura
• Namuji Hyoga
• Kagami Yama
• Himorogiri
• Shinsoku Hakujaku

What Devil Fruit does Yamato have?

Yamato has also eaten from the mythical Zoan Fruit Dog-Dog Fruit, model: Okuchi no Makami. In animal form, he can spit a beam that could stop Kaidou’s Boro Breath. According to the name of the attack, it is ice.

Past

Twenty years ago, Yamato attended Oden’s execution. Oden’s strength and will impressed him so much that he became a fan of Oden, much to his father’s chagrin. He himself could not forgive his father for shooting Oden either.
At a later time, Yamato found Oden’s log book in Kuri. He hid it from his father and Orochi and read it, considering it his bible ever since.

Kaidou didn’t like the fact that his child was emulating one of his enemies. He beat Yamato up, but Yamato would not be dissuaded. Kaidou put him in a dungeon, at which point Yamato unknowingly used his king shaki and took out all the guards. Kaidou then threw Yamato into a cave where he held some samurai captive. Kaidou wanted him to spend a month there to give up his idea of being Oden.

To the samurai he wanted to submit to him, he made a similar deal. He would let them out and give them enough to eat, since they hadn’t been getting anything for a while, in exchange for joining him. He tossed them weapons and had a tray of food brought in, which was only enough for one person. Kaidou said that they should decide between themselves who would get the food.

Yamato got scared, because as Kaidou’s child he would be the first to die, but Kaidou mockingly replied that this wouldn’t happen, because Yamato was Oden. After Kaidou left the cave and Yamato’s stomach could be heard growing, the samurai picked up their swords and gave Yamato the food. Yamato thanked the samurai and hoped to one day become like them. Yamato then took out Oden’s log book and asked the samurai to read it to him, as many of the words were too difficult for him to understand.

About three years ago, Yamato met Ace. Ace wanted to liberate Wano Country and had therefore sailed to Onigashima to defeat Kaidou. But Kaidou was not on the island and only Yamato and some Gifters had stayed behind to protect Onigashima. A fight ensued between Yamato and Ace, with both becoming friends with each other as they both hated their fathers.

After the remaining Gifters were blindfolded, Yamato and Ace drank together and swapped stories. In the process, Yamato also learned about Ace’s brother Luffy. When Ace enlightened Yamato about Luffy’s dream, Yamato said he had heard something like that in Oden’s log before and that Luffy would surely be a great pirate. When it came to parting, Yamato produced a Vivre Card for Ace and explained how it worked. Yamato himself kept a piece as well. Both promised to see each other again and then have a drink together with Luffy.

Present

Meeting with Luffy

When the festival was about to begin on Onigashima, Kaidou discovered that Yamato had disappeared, so he ordered the Flying Six to retrieve Yamato.

Ulti and Page One encountered Luffy in their search for Yamato, which led to a fight with Luffy. However, this was interrupted by Yamato, who was masked and knocked Ulti out, thus assisting Luffy. He took Luffy with him and hid with him for the time being, as he had something to talk to him about. However, Luffy didn’t have time and attacked him when he introduced himself as Kaidou’s son.

However, after convincing him to listen for at least five minutes, he took off his mask and explained why he was going against his father. Further, he asked to be allowed to help Luffy in his quest. When asked by Luffy why Yamato didn’t just do something himself or run away from Kaidou, Yamato explained that Kaidou had exploding handcuffs on him and thus he was bound to the island.

They then heard Orochi among them planning to kill Momonosuke, after which they both set out to save him. Furthermore, they also heard Kaidou declare that he had decided that Yamato should become the official new Shogun after Orochi’s death. Furious that his fate was decided without him, Yamato then destroyed some walls, creating a shortcut. In the process, Luffy, with Haki, removed Yamato’s handcuffs, which exploded shortly after.

With the explosion, the two drew attention in the main hall, where all the enemies were. Yamato could hardly believe that the handcuffs really exploded and it wasn’t a bluff. Yamato therefore decided to no longer accept Kaidou as a father from now on. Sanji, however, was able to take advantage of the general confusion by doing so to free Momonosuke and hand him over to Shinobu. Luffy then asked Yamato to watch over the two of them, at which point Yamato ran after them. However, Shinobu and Momonosuke thought that Yamato was a madman, as he kept shouting that they had nothing to fear since he was Oden.

Protector of Momonosuke

Shinobu didn’t trust Yamato and tried to shake him off, but ran into an ambush by Sasaki and his troops. Shinobu was injured, and Yamato put himself between her and Sasaki’s troops to protect her and Momonosuke from them.

Yamato withstood the attacks, but could hardly do anything himself due to the number of opponents. As Yamato was about to resort to his own devil powers, Franky appeared and swapped opponents with Yamato. Thus, Yamato took out Hatcha for Franky, while Franky took on Sasaki and his men. Yamato then took Shinobu and Momonosuke with him and fled with them. The three then hid in a storage room where the golden dragon statue is located, which was destroyed by Ace and Yamato. Yamato used the time to properly introduce himself and explain everything to Momonosuke about why Yamato would go against his father. He also handed Momonosuke Oden’s logbook so he could read it.

Father against son

However, their hiding place was found by a Mary, whereupon Yamato hid Momonosuke in his clothes and escaped to the attic with him and Shinobu. He was about to leave the attic shortly after to draw attention to himself. However, Momonosuke and Shinobu knew that Yamato only wanted to fight. The latter made his way to the rooftop to confront his father.

Yamato stated that once Kaidou was defeated and Momonosuke was leading Wano Country, Yamato himself could head out to sea with Luffy. Kaidou informed Yamato of Luffy’s defeat and that he could not defeat him. Yamato accepted this, however Yamato believed in Luffy’s return and wanted to buy him some time with his fight against Kaidou. After some time, Luffy also reappeared, this time on the back of a full-grown dragon, which was Momonosuke, and took over the fight.

Miscellaneous

• Yamato (大和) is a Yamato in Japan. The kanji can be translated as “great peace/great harmony”. The name is also a historical name for ancient Japan. In the context, it is interesting that Wano Country (ワノ国) – which is obviously based on feudal Japan during the Edo period – is a pun in the sense of a homonym on Wano Country (和の国), which literally means “land of harmony”.
• Since Yamato considers himself a man, he uses boku (僕) (meaning “I/my/mine”), which is actually more of a typical male expression.
• An allusion to Yamato’s female gender: In Japan there is the expression Yamato nadeshiko which is a term for the classical Japanese female ideal.
• Yamato and Momonosuke interestingly look like each other’s father.

• His favorite dishes are Odes and raw salmon.
• In SBS Volume 99, Oda drew a humanized version of Yamato’s Sideboob.
• Yamato’s devil fruit is based on a Japanese deity. The Okuchi no Makami is based on the Japanese wolf, which is now considered extinct in Japan. According to legend, he has mysterious powers and protects against various misfortunes, especially fire and theft. Moreover, it could understand human language. In Japan, the Okuchi no Makami was once highly revered and served as a guardian figure in front of shrines. However, with the decline of the wolf population, the influence of the Okuchi no Makami also dwindled.
• Yamato Takeru, a prince of the Yamato dynasty, is said to have once lost his way in the mountains. A white wolf appeared before him and led him back home, saving his life. Because he was so grateful to the white wolf for its help, he placed guardian figures in the form of Okuchi no Makami at the entrances of shrines.
• In the 7th popularity vote, the first worldwide vote and the first in which she participated, Yamato ranked 11th.