Oden Kozuki

"Fool of a Lord" Oden Kozuki

**Oden Kozuki**, is both a fictional character and tritagonist from the *J-Stars'* *Fairy One Piece Tail* series created by Hiro Mashima and Eiichiro Oda. He was the daimyo of Kuri in Wano Country and family member of the Kozuki Clan.

Additionally, he was also a skilled swordsman, and the leader of a group of legendary and powerful samurai and especially those outside of Wano Country, with all of them serving as his own retainers and most trusted allies.

For 5 years of his life, Oden set out to sea and became a pirate, joining Whitebeard's pirate crew, and later Roger's crew. After finding Joy Boy's treasure on Laugh Tale, he was determined to open Wano's boarders to the world.

Once he returned, however, he discovered his father's place as Shogun, was taken by his usurper with the assistance of a pirate. Oden fought against Kaido in battle and lost, who eventually killed him 20 years before the present.

"*It was a world I'd never seen!! Cold and heat like I'd never experienced!! Plants!! Animals!! People!! Strength!! Ideas!! Everything was new and different. Every day my old illusions were shattered!! Everything surpassed my imagination!! **I was so small**!! **I only knew a tiny piece of the world**!!*"

—Oden Kozuki, his diary.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice Actor*: Not Known (English), Hiroya Ishimaru (Japanese), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (French), Not Known (German), Not Known (Greek), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (Castilian Spanish), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

### Appearance

Oden was a muscular man of towering height that is shown to have been over half that of Whitebeard (6.6 m), much taller than normal people. He had long, wild hair of black color that was notably gathered into a large, flat, circular plane at the top, and also included a prominent widow's peak and triangular sideburns. He had relatively sharp, black eyes whose inner and outer corners were marked by black jags going down and up respectively, and above a pair of prominent, highly arched eyebrows. He had a mid-sized, slightly hooked nose, a large, expressive mouth, and a broad chin. During the five years before his demise, he grew a short goatee.

For clothes, Oden typically wore an orange kimono, leaving most of his legs exposed; the kimono had two yellow crescent moon designs on it. Oden also wore a large purple and white nio-dasuki tied around his shoulders that ran down his back. He would often alternate between this and a similar longer kimono, with his nio-dasuki worn as a belt and tied in the front.

Oden also wore his favourite swords Enma and Ame no Habakiri across his left waist tucked inside an obi belt. While partying with the Whitebeard Pirates, he wore a light colored shirt, dark colored pants, and crown on his head.

* Hair Color: Black
* Skin Color: Not Known
* Eye Color: Black
* Age: 39 (Deceased)
* Birthday: February 22nd
* Height: 382 cm (12'6")
* Weight: Not Known
* Bounty: Not Known

## Personality

Oden was an extremely brash, confident, and self-willed man. This motivated him to commit outrageous and violent actions for his own benefit during his youth and adolescence, such as burning down the yakuza casino after being banned from it and kidnapping women at night to form a harem in the mountains. After being exiled by Sukiyaki, he seemed to have found an outlet for his unconventional attempts at heroism, as he was able to bring peace to Kuri and rebuild its infrastructure in only two years.

Overall, Oden was known for getting into a significant number of violent fights, and he cared little for the consequences of his actions, as he gladly stood his ground against the yakuza and the loved ones of the women when fighting broke out as a result of the two aforementioned incidents. Although most men were appalled by his actions, his attitude made him very attractive to women, including the ones he kidnapped for his harem as they stayed with him willingly.

After being sentenced to work in the quarries, Oden became less selfish and started acting to improve the lives of the Flower Capital citizens around him. However, these actions were just as outrageous and ill-thought-out as the ones Oden committed to benefit himself. The most notable example is when he attempted to help out the citizens during a drought by diverting a river into the city, which caused the city to become flooded.

Additionally, when a Mountain God attacked the Flower Capital, Oden quickly went to action to try to deal with it. Oden seemed to often mean well, but acted in ways that were reckless and potentially alienating to those around him. For example, to honor a deceased man he once knew, Oden cooked a pot of oden soup over the cremated remains and "shared one last drink" with his former friend, much to the dismay of his mourning family members.

"*Leaving this country is my dream!! Take me with you, let me see the world!!*"

—Oden Kozuki, his thirst for adventure.
Oden was also extremely adventurous and wanted to illegally set sail away from Wano Country, viewing it as too cramped. In his youth, he viewed this dream as more important than preparing to succeed his father as shogun. In fact, Oden's determination to set sail was so great that he kept trying to do so 38 times before he became a daimyo. When Whitebeard constantly refused and tried to secretly set sail without notifying him, Oden jumped straight into the sea holding onto the Moby Dick by a chain, shocking the Whitebeard Pirates.

Thus, Whitebeard imposed him an extremely difficult challenge which Oden readily agreed to accept it as Oden could braved through the harshest weathers and obstacles without flinching. After he officially joined the Whitebeard Pirates, Oden became immensely excited and curious when they arrived at every new island, learning new discoveries which were unknown to Wano, to the point he ended up recklessly throwing himself into danger.

After sailing with the Roger Pirates, Oden decided that he wanted to succeed his father as shogun and open Wano's borders, wanting to change the entire world. Oden was also a rather naive man as he was easily used by Orochi, which led Kaido to call him a foolish lord. Whenever Orochi came to him asking for money, Oden would always give into his requests and lend him money, something Denjiro constantly scolded him for.

Oden also believed that Orochi would honor an agreement that Orochi and Kaido would leave Wano if he humiliated himself for five years. Ultimately, Oden's naivety would indirectly allow Orochi to rise to power and turn Wano into a wasteland. Despite his rowdy behavior, Oden was an extremely compassionate man. While at first annoyed by Kin'emon and Denjiro acting as his followers, he still cared for their well-being.

He also took in other people like the orphaned Izo and Kikunojo, the persecuted Kanjuro and the lonely Raizo. After subduing the criminals and outlaws of Kuri, Oden chose to reform them rather than execute them as criminals. Oden did not tolerate discrimination, considering it a symbol of ignorance. He saved Kawamatsu, Dogstorm, and Cat Viper from being publicaly humiliated and tortured, beating up the ones responsible for it.

He also saw the three as helpless children rather than monsters and was amazed by their uniqueness. Additionally, Oden willingly gave up on his trial to join the Whitebeard Pirates when he heard Toki Amatsuki calling out for help, choosing to save her even if it meant he could not join their crew. When Toki was forced to return to Wano in the middle of their voyage with Roger, she had to threaten to divorce Oden to keep him from staying with her.

When Oden learned how Orochi abused his power and authority as the shogun by enslaving Wano citizens for his tyrannical greed, including executing an innocent man along with his family for defiance, Oden was outraged and did not blame his retainers for attacking Orochi for the injustice he caused, as he personally stormed into the Flower Capital to execute Orochi himself.

When Oden learned from Orochi how his family was unjustly persecuted for his grandfather's crimes, he accepted his demands of dancing naked weekly in the Flower Capital as an apology to the Kurozumi Family in exchange for sparing the citizens from Orochi's vengeance, including liberating the hundreds of abducted citizens that were meant as a tribute to Kaido.

Oden's favorite food was oden soup which he also cooked to feed his retainers during his journey around Wano and also after becoming the daimyo of Kuri. Oden was even proud to be named after his favorite food, declaring he was born to be boiled like oden soup as he died in a pot of boiling oil. Oden also loved to drink sake, having started drinking alcohol when he was only eight years old.

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Nine Red Scabbards
* Yasuie Shimotsuki
* Whitebeard Pirates
	+ Whitebeard
* Roger Pirates
	+ Roger D. Gol

### Family

* Sukiyaki Kozuki (father; deceased)
* Toki Kozuki (wife; deceased)
* Momonosuke Kozuki (son)
* Hiyori Kozuki (daughter)

### Enemies

* Orochi Kurozumi
* Beasts Pirates
	+ Kaido

## Powers and Abilities

As daimyo of Kuri, Oden had a large amount of power and influence over the region before his death. It has been implied that he had the ability to hear the "Voice of All Things", which his son also inherited. Being a former member of both the Whitebeard Pirates, as a former Divison Commander, and the Roger Pirates, Oden was regarded as being a tremendously powerful pirate with a great level of influence in both crews.

His influence even extends toward the members of the Mink Tribe on Zou, with the leaders Dogstorm and Cat Viper being members of the Nine Red Scabbards. As a descendant of the Kozuki Family, Oden also inherited from his ancestors the knowledge and skill to read Poneglyphs and write its ancient language.

Additionally, the rest of the Mink Tribe has shown enough respect and loyalty toward the Kozuki Family that all of them were willing to die rather than to allow one of Oden's retainers from being captured even after Oden died. In spite of all the conflicts that he had with the Yakuza over the years, his death had such an impact on the leaders of the Yakuza that they staged their own rebellion against Orochi Kurozumi who had allied with Kaido before they were all captured and sent to Udon prison.

Oden possessed a tremendous combination of combat skills and charisma. His combat prowess was seen at an early age, when he got into massive battles and altercations with powerful samurai and yakuza and survived, causing an implied high number of casualties over the years. Despite being frequently pursued by authorities in his youth, he was only captured once and eluded capture many times afterward.

His combat and charisma combination was best seen in his restoration of peace to Kuri, where he defeated the powerful Ashura Doji and then proceeded to round up the rest of the dangerous criminals and get them to work under him, including Ashura. Prior to this, he also demonstrated his charisma by quickly becoming a figure of high repute as a laborer in the quarry. As Oden admitted himself, he had no talent in sailing and navigation.

### Physical Abilities

Oden had tremendous physical strength since infancy, during which he flung his wet nurse across the room. By age two, he could catch rabbits with his bare hands, and at age four, he killed a bear by throwing a boulder at it. At adulthood, Oden could carry a giant Koi carp which he caught at sea by himself and exerted enough physical power in his swordsmanship to clash with Whitebeard's Meito Murakumogiri. To match his tremendous strength, Oden also had astounding tolerance to pain, as he could hold a hot pot with his bare hands.

He had immense stamina and endurance, as he was able to fight against the criminals and ronin of Kuri joined led by Ashura Doji for an entire night alone with multiple wounds such as arrows sticking out of his body yet still came out victorious. Additionally, he held onto a chain pulled by the Moby Dick and faced the many dangers and climates of the New World ocean with no protection for three days before eventually letting go, more because he went to rescue Toki than due to exhaustion. When he washed ashore on an island afterward, he received slight treatment from Toki and slept for one night before getting up with exuberant energy, leaving Toki surprised about his tremendous recovery speed.

As a testament to his monsterous strength and endurance, Oden was able to hold up all nine of his retainers, each who are very large, on a thick wooden plank while his lower half was submerged for an extended period of time in a large pot of boiling oil, which killed an average man in seconds despite getting out. He survived being boiled alive in oil while the temperature continued to increase to over 700 degrees of heat for almost over an hour, a feat no one has managed before, which impressed even Kaido. Despite being near death, Oden could still muster the strength to throw all nine of his retainers a great distance away from the execution site. However, it appeared that Oden reached his limit from this as Kaido noted that his body was dead.

### Swordsmanship

Oden was an extremely powerful master samurai, having developed his own variation of **Two-Sword Style** (二刀流, *Nitōryū*; literally meaning "Two Swords Style"), which Oden himself referred as **Oden Two-Sword Style** (おでん二刀流, *Oden Nitōryū*; literally meaning "Oden Two Swords Style"). He had immense prowess and ambidexterity in dual-wielding the legendary Meito, Enma and Ame no Habakiri.

Even at age 9, Oden could fight against an entire yakuza gang in the Flower Capital until the age of 10 where he almost killed someone. At age 18, he was able to strike down the massive beast hailed as the Mountain God with a single attack. Kin'emon stated that Oden was able to fight against all of the outlaws, ronin, and the regions most dangerous criminal, Ashura Doji (someone noted to be worth 100 men in battle) after an entire night of battle.

During his adventures with the Whitebeard Pirates, Oden was able to easily sink a large pirate ship by cutting it in half. Due to his adventures with the Whitebeard and Roger Pirates, he was stated to be have grown stronger than before to where he was the only individual to wound the nigh-invulnerable Kaido in his Mythical Zoan dragon form causing him to fall to the ground and be permanently scarred, but couldn't deal another blow due to being tricked by Higurashi who disguised herself as a kidnapped Momonosuke.

#### Techniques

The named techniques that are used by Oden that involve his Swordmanship skills are as follows:

* **Paradise Waterfall** (桃源白滝, *Tōgen Shirataki*; literally meaning "Paradise White Waterfall"): Oden hardens both his swords using "Ryuo", then delivers a diagonal slash with each one of them at the same time. This technique has immense power and range, as seen when Oden used the technique to bisect the massive Mountain God in half. "Shirataki" is a type of Japanese noodles and a popular ingredient in oden, which follows the oden-themed naming scheme of Oden's techniques.

* **Gun Modoki** (ガン・モドキ, *Gan Modoki*; literally meaning "Gun Imitating Demon"): After hardening his swords using "Ryuo", Oden crosses his swords and charges forward, slicing anyone in his path. When Oden used this technique, he was able to defeat several members of the Roger Pirates at once. The attack name is a pun on "ganmodoki", Japanese fried tofu fritter made with vegetables and a popular side for oden, in keeping with the naming scheme of Oden's techniques.

* **Paradise Totsuka** (桃源十拳, *Tōgen Totsuka*; literally meaning "Paradise Ten Hands"): Oden hardens his swords using "Ryuo", then leaps toward his opponent performing an X-shaped slash powerful enough to give the nigh-invincible Kaido his permanent scar. "Totsuka" is a reference to the four Totsuka-no-Tsurugi mentioned in Japanese mythology, one of them being Ame no Habakiri.

#### Conqueror's Haki

Oden possessed Conqueror's Haki, a very rare type of Haki whose users are said to have the qualities of a king. During his initial encounter with Whitebeard 30 years ago, their sudden clash created a notable effect similar to lightning and released a large burst.

#### Armament Haki

Oden was an exceptionally skilled master of Armament Haki, which is known as "Ryuo" in Wano. This is most noted as he was the only samurai who could tame the Meito, Enma despite its dangerous haki-draining properties, which even Kin'emon, a member of the Nine Red Scabbards, feared to accept. As a true and further testament to his skills, he was able to wound even the nigh-invincible Kaido whereas even Luffy using Boundman could not even damage him, displaying his supreme mastery of this Haki compared to Zoro who had his arm emaciated after his initial attempt at using Enma although he forced his Haki back into his arm.

Even at the age of eighteen, he was already masterful in using "Ryuo", as he could imbue it into both his swords (Ame no Habakiri and Enma) hardening them and cleanly bisect the gigantic Mountain God of Wano in a single slash. At the age of twenty-nine, Oden could harden his swords and clashed against Armament Haki enhanced Murakumogiri, one of the 12 Saijo O Wazamono belonging to Edward Newgate, who was an immensely powerful Armament Haki master in his own right.

### Weapons

Oden wielded two O Wazamono Meito: Ame no Habakiri (the sword said to be able to cut "heaven" itself) and its sister sword Enma (the sword said to be able to cut to the "bottom of hell"), respective masterpieces of Wano's greatest swordsmiths Tenguyama Hitetsu and Shimotsuki Kozaburo.

Even more notably according to Hitetsu, Oden was the only one who mastered Enma's significant Haki depletion, something which emaciated Zoro's arm and drained several other samurai. These swords are the only known weapons to have ever harmed the near-invulnerable Kaido, giving him a permanent scar, something no one else has been able to do before or after.

## Legacy

"*We swear that if we can truly travel to the future... we will surely finish what Lord Oden had started! We will defeat Orochi!! Defeat Kaido!! And open the borders of this country once and for all!!!*"

—Kin'emon, to Toki Kozuki after Oden's death.
His death was deeply mourned by the rest of the country and his noble reputation was fully restored to the rest of the people of Wano, causing tons of people to take arms and ready to rebel against Orochi's regime and the Beasts Pirates in his name and the Kozuki Family. Kaido attacked the rest of Oden's family after Oden's death, but his children survived as Toki sent Momonosuke 20 years forward in time and Kawamatsu kept Hiyori safe. Sometime after Oden's execution, Kaido's daughter Yamato discovered his journal and kept it.

For the next 20 years, Oden was vilified by Orochi's administration, who informed the populace that he had attempted to destroy Wano in his quest to open its borders. Sympathizing with the Kozuki Family became a high crime, one that even children were punished heavily for committing. Orochi was officially recognized as a hero for defeating Oden.

However, in spite of Orochi's attempts to portray Oden in a negative light, thousands of Wano citizens remained loyal to him and his family due to Oden's selfless action. These included the other four daimyo and the yakuza bosses, and Orochi and Kaido had to resort to killing or imprisoning them to silence them.

Before he died, Oden told his retainers to complete his quest to open Wano's borders. After being sent forward in time, Momonosuke, Kin'emon, Kanjuro, Raizo, and Kikunojo recruited all of the remaining Nine Red Scabbards aside from Denjiro and thousands of other Kozuki Family sympathizers to rise up and bring down Orochi and Kaido. Additionally, they went abroad and formed an alliance with the Straw Hat Pirates and Heart Pirates to increase their fighting power, and the mink citizens of Zou that Dogstorm and Cat Viper ruled over were also recruited.

Yamato, who admired Oden before his death, was devastated when he was killed and, upon finding his journal, held dearly to it like a bible. Yamato is so devoted to Oden that she has styled herself after him, and intends on fulfilling his dream of reopening Wano's borders.

## Battles

### Canon

* Oden vs. Yakuza gangs (unseen)
* Oden vs. Mountain God
* Oden vs. Bandits of Kuri
	+ Oden vs. Ashura Doji
* Oden vs. Newgate Edward
* Oden vs. Roger D. Gol
* Oden, the Nine Red Scabbards, and Shinobu vs. Beasts Pirates
	+ Oden vs. Kaido

## External links

* Oden Kozuki *Heroes Wiki*
* Oden Kozuki *Koei Wiki*
* Oden Kozuki *One Piece Wiki*