Yamato

"Ogre Princess" Yamato

**Yamato**, also known as "**Ogre Princess**", is both a fictional character and tritagonist from the *J-Stars'* *Fairy One Piece Tail* series created by Hiro Mashima and Eiichiro Oda. She is the daughter of Kaido of the Four Emperors.

Despite her gender, she is referred to by Kaido, his crew, and herself as Kaido's "son". Groomed from a young age to be Kaido's heir, Yamato instead developed a profound admiration for **Oden Kozuki**, treating his travel log as her own "bible".

After his death, Yamato chose to "become" Oden, impersonating the legendary samurai and adopting his mannerisms. This earned her father's scoring ire, which escalated to physical punishment and imprisonment on Onigashima.

She befriended Ace D. Portgas during his visit to Wano Kingdom, though her explosive Sea Prism Stone shackles kept her from fleeing the island with him. After learning of Ace's death, she waited for the arrival of his brothers and sister.

Yamato have intended on meeting them, so she could join their waging war efforts to overthrow against her father, Kaido, and then go out to sea with Luffy and his crew. She is a major ally of the alliance during the *Wano Kingdom Arc*.

"*I want to set out to sea and go on an adventure, too. I want to live free like Oden!*"

—Yamato.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice Actor*: Not Known (English), Saori Hayami (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

#### The Young Past Days

At age 8, Yamato's outfit was nearly identical to today, except with a slightly different mask with shorter horns and beard and without the nio-daisuki. In the manga her outfit lacked the diamond-shaped design.

Around four years ago, Yamato wore a similar long-sleeved outfit, but with different symbols on the breast area. The symbols resemble an oden skewer.

#### Current

Yamato is tall, being almost twice Luffy's height but not nearly as tall as Kaido. She has long, white hair that is bound between orange rods into a ponytail at the back, which fades into aqua green and then blue the further down it goes, and ends in rectangular locks similar to Kaidou. Yamato also has large, orange eyes with prominent eyelashes, and wears gold hoop earrings on both ears and has red horns. Clothing-wise, she wears a pair of red hakama pants and sandals, and, much like Oden, wears a large purple and white nio-daisuki behind the back.

* Hair Color: White, Aqua Green, and Blue
* Skin Color: Not Known
* Eye Color: Orange
* Age: 28
* Birthday: November 3rd
* Height: 263 cm (8'8")
* Weight: Not Known
* Bounty: Not Known

## Personality

Yamato greatly admires the legendary samurai Oden Kozuki to the point of even proclaiming to carry his identity. She has referred to herself as Oden on multiple occasions and has even emulated his gender, referring to herself as the "son of Kaido" due to Oden being a man. Although initially carrying doubts as to how to present as Oden, Yamato has steadily expressed a straightforward attitude regarding this identity as time has gone on, even proclaiming herself as such to Oden's son Momonosuke, to the boy's horror.

Although having wholeheartedly embraced this identity, Yamato has not cast aside her original persona, having referred to Yamato as her "other name".

Yamato does not seem to like people getting her name wrong, as she quickly corrected Luffy when he referred to her with a nickname. Having read of the great exploits documented by Oden in his logbook, which she considers to be her "bible", Yamato dreams of leaving Wano's confines and setting out to sea with the Straw Hat Pirates, much like Oden did with the Whitebeard and Roger Pirates decades before.

Yamato also wishes to fulfill the goals that Oden had, namely opening Wano's borders, in direct defiance to Kaido's wishes for the country. Yamato has shown herself to be extremely strong-willed, having put up considerable resistance to Kaido's imprisonment of her despite having yet to fully break free. Although initially seeming to be more subordinate to him previously, her battle with Ace led to her destroying Kaido's dragon statue in an act of defiance that has since led to more outright rebellion.

Yamato has engaged in combat with her father numerous times and has openly expressed opposition and defiance to his plans for her, accompanied by insults. When the Alliance invaded Onigashima, Yamato was immediately willing to help them and had no qualms with attacking members of her father's crew, making her intentions and loyalty clear to them during her attacks. Yamato is also willing to go to great lengths to achieve her objectives, having basically kidnapped Luffy in order to get to talk to him and following through with this tactic even after Luffy responded by attacking her.

Yamato is more than willing to put her body and life on the line to protect people she cares about, as she believes that Oden would never abandon a comrade in danger. She resolutely withstood a barrage of powerful artillery strikes by the Armored Division to protect Momonosuke, and later confronted Kaido by herself to stall him until Luffy returned despite knowing she was no match for him. However, Yamato also takes enjoyment in engaging in combat; despite framing her plan to split up from Momonosuke as a decoy strategy to trick the Beasts Pirates, Momonosuke and Shinobu both noted to themselves that Yamato seemed mainly interested in going to fight.

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Team Natsu
	+ Happy
	+ Lucy Heartfilia
* Straw Hat Pirates
	+ Zoro Roronoa
	+ Usopp
	+ Sanji Vinsmoke
	+ Nami
	+ Chopper Tony Tony
	+ Robin Nico
	+ Franky
	+ Brook
	+ Jimbei

## Overview

"*I recognize your value…as a soldier!!!*"

—Kaido about Yamato.
Yamato is a very powerful warrior, with Black Maria noting that bringing her back to Kaido's fortress after having escaped would be a difficult task. In the past, Yamato was able to clash against Ace, a powerful Logia user, on equal ground. Afterwards, Ace acknowledged Yamato's abilities, saying he could not believe someone as strong as her was not the captain and lamenting that Yamato could not join his crew. During the battle on Onigashima, Yamato clashed with Kaido, a particularly notable feat considering the Emperor's nearly unparalleled physical might.

### Physical Abilities

Yamato possesses immense physical strength resembling that of Kaido, being capable of wielding a large and heavy kanabo and using it to knock out Ulti, an Ancient Zoan user and one of the Tobiroppo, with just one blow. Yamato was also able to physically match Luffy's strength with relative ease, even when he increased his strength exponentially with Gear Second and Gear Third. When Yamato countered a punch from Luffy with a kick, the powerful collision destroyed part of the nearby wall and ceiling and blew back the Beasts Pirates around them.

Yamato could easily run while carrying Luffy with just one arm and was able to shatter the extremely tough armor and weaponry of the Beasts Pirates' Armored Corps.

Yamato is extremely fast, being able to lunge forward with blinding speed to attack, as well as outrun members of the Beasts Pirates in pursuit, and eventually completely elude the pirates and escape to the attic with Luffy without anyone seeing them. Yamato also possesses tremendous durability, having emerged from being struck by multiple explosive bazooka blasts with only superficial bruises and cuts, though she eventually began taking more serious wounds as the bazooka strikes continued.

### Devil Fruit

*Main article:* *Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Okuchi-no-Makami*
The **Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Okuchi-no-Makami**, a Mythical Zoan-class Devil Fruit, which was eaten by Yamato, enables her transformation into a divine wolf, as well as a hybrid between a human and that animal. According to Kaido, this beast is a "**Guardian Deity of Wano Country**". Yamato ate this fruit purely out of hunger despite the fact it was not meant for her.

As a Zoan, this fruit greatly bolsters Yamato's physical abilities. Yamato was able to clash near-evenly against her father, an Emperor of the Sea, while the latter had assumed his extremely powerful human-dragon form. Furthermore, being a carnivorous animal, this animal transformation grants Yamato heightened predatory instincts, as well as equipping her with fangs and claws that are well-suited for combat.

Being a Mythical Zoan, this fruits bestows special powers that a regular wolf does not possess. Yamato is able to utilize the element of ice, allowing her to augment her kanabo, protect herself with ice armor, and even release a powerful blast of ice from her mouth that can clash evenly with and cancel out Kaido's flame breath blast.

#### Techniques

The named techniques that are used by Yamato that involve the Devil Fruit are as follows:

* **Namuji Glacier Fang** (無侍氷牙, *Namuji Hyōga*; literally meaning "Non-Samurai Ice Fang"): A technique where Yamato rears her head back, takes a deep breath, and then abruptly exhales forward a dense blast of ice at her target of choice. First seen used by Yamato in her Human-Beast Form against Kaido, atop the Skull Dome, the attack proved strong enough to clash against and counter Kaido's *Blast Breath* (used by the latter in his own hybrid form). *Namuji* may be a reference to the Japanese deity Ōkuninushi, who is also known as "Ōnamuji".

* **Mirror Mountain** (鏡山, *Kagamiyama*; literally meaning "Mirror Mountain"): A defensive technique where Yamato seems to encase herself fully in ice, which initially cannot be distinguished from her body. Should Yamato be struck by an enemy attack, said armor-like coating will absorb the damage, becoming visible as it cracks and breaks off Yamato like glass, leaving her unharmed. The technique was first seen following a *Thunder Bagua* clash between Yamato and Kaido, the former using it to keep herself from being injured. *Kagamiyama* (鏡山), or Mount Kagami, is the name of a mountain in the Saga Prefecture of Japan. According to an old legend, Matsu-ura Sayohime bid farewell to her husband Ōtomo no Satehiko at the mountain's top and prayed for his return so intensely that she turned to stone.

* **Hallowed Glacier Slash** (氷諸斬り, *Himorogiri*; literally meaning "Icy Various Cuts"): An offensive move where Yamato, in her Human-Beast Form, leaps into the air and starts vertically spinning her kanabo to her left, making a swirl of ice form around her weapon. Therewith, she consequently strikes down upon her foe from above. When first using this attack against Kaido, she struck the back of his head and knocked him to the ground despite Kaido blocking with his own club, but otherwise failed to deal him any damage. The attack's name is a pun on *himorogi* (神籬; lit. "divine fence"), a Shintō term referring to sacred spaces/altars used for kami worship, consisting of square areas demarcated by green bamboo or sakaki.

### Haki

*Main article:* *Haki*
Yamato is one of very few people in the world who is capable of using all three forms of Haki.

#### Armament Haki

Yamato is a highly skilled user of Armament Haki, having imbued her hand and kanabo with it while preparing to attack Hatcha, resulting in a lightning-like effect. Yamato can use Armament Haki to an advanced degree, being capable of projecting it a great distance forward and hitting faraway opponents with tremendous force with a simple kanabo swing. Yamato can also use it to hurt Logia users, having clashed against Ace's fire when they first fought and managing to successfully injure him.

#### Conqueror's Haki

Yamato possesses Conqueror's Haki, a very rare form of Haki whose users are stated to have the qualities of a king. Yamato was shown to have unleashed this Haki while running wild through Onigashima as a child, knocking out many of her father's subordinates. As an adult, Yamato has demonstrated the advanced technique of imbuing Conqueror's, with her kanabo emitting streams of a dark lightning-like substance when performing the *Thunder Bagua* technique.

### Weapons

Yamato wields a giant kanabo club much like Kaidou, though hers is studded and more slender, while Kaido's is spiked and a bit thicker. Coupled with Yamato's immense strength, the kanabo can wreak tremendous damage to objects and opponents with a single hit, and with Yamato's strength and Haki, it can be used to perform flying strikes that can even resemble energy blasts. Yamato has masterful technique with her kanabo despite its great size and weight, being capable of moving it to counter Luffy's rapid attacks with little effort.

#### Techniques

The named techniques that are used by Yamato that involve the Weapon are as follows:

* **Thunder Bagua** (雷鳴八卦, *Raimei Hakke*; literally meaning "Thunderclap Eight Trigrams"}: A technique used by Kaidou and imitated by Yamato, in which she lunges forward at their target with blinding speed and swings her kanabo horizontally, striking the target with tremendous force. The attack was first seen used against Ulti in her full-beast transformation, knocking her out instantly. However, while Kaidou uses only one hand to swing his kanabo, Yamato swings it with both hands instead. Ulti disdainfully calls this **Blunder Bagua** (雷鳴四卦, *Raimei Yonke*; literally meaning "Thunderclap Four Trigrams) instead, but coughed blood while doing this.

* **Narikabura Arrow** (鳴鏑, *Narikabura*; literally meaning "Ringing Turnip"): Swinging her kanabo upward, Yamato unleashes a vertical energy projectile to hit opponents from below with great force. It was first used against Hatcha, and immediately knocked him unconscious upon striking him in the head. *Narikabura* is another term for *Kabura-ya* ("turnip-headed arrow"), arrows used by samurai which made a whistling sound when fired.

* **Divine Swiftness White Serpent** (神足白蛇駆, *Shinsoku Hakujaku*; literally meaning "Divine Feet White Snake Dash"): A melee attack where Yamato imbues her kanabo with Conqueror's Haki, causing dark lightning to emanate from it. Yamato then dashes toward her opponent, swinging her club horizontally with two hands to strike a powerful blow to that opponent, not unlike her *Thunder Bagua*. When used against Kaidou alongside Luffy's *Jet Culverin*, it managed to knock the Emperor back quite some distance and made him spit up blood. The first part of the attack's name is homophonous with the word *shinsoku* (神速) for "great speed" (literally meaning "divine speed"); the second part, ironically, is homophonous with the word *hakujaku* (薄弱), meaning "weakness/feebleness".

## History

### Past

Twenty years ago at the age of 8, Yamato was present at Oden's execution in the Hour of Legends, being extremely saddened yet also inspired at the great samurai's death. Immediately afterwards, Yamato ran to Kuri Castle to try to save Oden's family, but could only watch as her father Kaido attacked them. Following Kuri Castle's destruction, Yamato found Oden's logbook in a nearby river, and at some point Yamato told Kaido that she wanted to become Oden, leading to Kaidou beating her up and imprisoning her on Onigashima with exploding handcuffs on her wrists. However, this did not deter Yamato from continuing to emulate Oden.

At some point not long after Oden's death, Yamato was running wild across Onigashima, and despite being chained up by Kaido, unleashed Conqueror's Haki which knocked out many of her father's subordinates. Yamato insisted to Kaido that she was Oden, and he responded that if she was, then she would have to die. To try to make Yamato see sense, Kaido locked his daughter in a cave along with a few samurai prisoners for a month or until they agreed to obey him.

He left them with food provisions for only a single person, and gave them swords to fight over it. Yamato grew extremely scared, believing the samurai would hate her due to her heritage; however, the samurai proceeded to immediately give her the food, saying they did not feel hunger. One of the samurai, Shimotsuki Ushimaru, cut Yamato free from her chains, saying that he had been friends with Oden. Yamato asked for help reading Oden's logbook, and the samurai guided her through it as they took great interest in the exploits it contained themselves.

After ten days, the samurai stated that they would not make it 20 years to the day of the promised battle and so prepared to escape the cave and confront Kaido in order to enable Yamato to survive until that day. One time, whilst starving, Yamato found the Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Okuchi-no-Makami and ate it, not realizing it was a highly valuable Devil Fruit that Kaido had worked hard to acquire.

Four years before the present day, Yamato confronted the pirate Ace D. Portgas as he and his crew invaded Onigashima to kill Kaido, who was on an expedition. Yamato and Ace engaged in a fierce duel, during which Ace learned of Yamato being trapped by Kaido and thus encouraged her to break free from his control. This ultimately led Yamato to destroy a large dragon statue that her father valued in an act of defiance as she expressed her dream to be free and set sail.

Yamato and Ace then had drinks together, and she asked him about other pirates making a name for themselves. Ace told her about several up-and-coming ones, but spent most of the time talking about his little brother Luffy. Ace ended up accidentally mentioning Luffy's ambitious dream and, realizing his error, begged Yamato to not laugh at it; however, Yamato reacted with excitement and quickly affirmed she would not do so, as Luffy's goal was the exact same as that of the King of the Pirates Roger D. Gol which she read about in Oden's logbook.

Following their time together, Yamato gave Ace a Vivre Card which would allow them to meet again one day as he set sail. Two years later, however, the card burned up and Yamato learned about Ace's death soon afterwards from the newspaper. In that newspaper, she also learned about the exploits of Luffy and gained the desire to meet him one day.

## Battles

### Canon

* Yamato vs. Bluebeard
* Yamato vs. Ace D. Portgas
* Yamato vs. Luffy D. Monkey and Natsu Dragneel
* Yamato vs. Ulti (Onigashima Live Floor)
* Yamato vs. Sasaki and Armored Division
* Yamato vs. Kaido

## Anime and Manga Differences

In the anime, Yamato was shown to be the unknown figure who observed Robin and Jimbei when the Straw Hats enter into Onigashima's castle. The manga has yet to show whether the person was Yamato or not.

## Translation and Dub Issues

### Gender

The gender identity of Yamato is a complex and nuanced issue that has resulted in a fair amount of confusion due to potentially conflicting information as well as conflicting interpretations of this information. This uncertainty has forced English translators to take their own stance on the matter, as translations must often add third-person pronouns on their own due to such terms being rare in Japanese.

Information on Yamato's gender that has come directly from the author has indicated that Yamato is female. This includes Yamato being referred to as the "daughter of Kaido" in both her introduction box in Chapter 984 and her listing at the beginning of volumes starting in Volume 98. Additionally, Vivre Card - One Piece Visual Dictionary lists Yamato's gender as female in her card entry.

However, certain statements by characters in the manga have continued to create confusion and uncertainty regarding Yamato's gender, particularly regarding Yamato being referred to as Kaido's son. Yamato has stated that she refers to herself as Kaido's son due to her desire to adopt Oden's identity, saying "Oden was a man, wasn't he? So I chose to be a man too!" Yamato has also been referred to as Kaido's son by Kaido himself as well as the Beasts Pirates; though their reasons for doing so still remain unclear, given their relationship with the real Oden and their reactions to Yamato claiming to be the legendary samurai.

This has led to a significant portion of the fanbase believing that, in-universe, characters who know Yamato consider her to be male, and the official Viz translation has taken this approach, with Luffy and the Beasts Pirates referring to Yamato with masculine ("he/him") pronouns.

## Etymology

* "Yamato" (大和), meaning "Great Harmony", is an ancient name for Japan (originating from the Yamato Province) and can can also refer to the Yamato period of Japanese history, which lasted into the 8th century. Relating to that, Yamato is the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial House of Japan and further refers to the dominant ethnic group of Japan, the Yamato people. Otherwise:
	+ Yamato Takeru is a legendary Japanese prince of the Yamato dynasty, prominent in mythology.
	+ Yamato is the name of a prominent WWII-era Japanese battleship.
	+ Yamato nadeshiko is a phrase that refers to the idealized image of a Japanese female.
* Hannya, which Yamato's mask is based on, are well known in Japanese theatrical stage culture for representing characters who are the physical manifestation of twisted female souls.
* Yamato seems to be inspired by Oscar François de Jarjayes, from the shōjo manga *The Rose of Versailles*, who is a woman raised by her father as if she were a boy in order to succeed him as the commander of the Royal Guard at the Palace of Versailles.
	+ Additionally, in the Chapter 945 author's comment, Oda talks about reading *The Rose of Versailles* for the first time and being surprised to find out Oscar was a woman.

## External links

* Yamato *One Piece Wiki*
* Yamato *Heroes Wiki*

## Notes & Trivia

* On a request from a fan in Volume 99's SBS, Oda drew a personification of the side of Yamato's breast, or "**sideboob**" (横乳, *yoko chichi*).
* Yamato's favorite food is oden and raw salmon eaten by biting into it.
* Yamato possesses some notable parallels to Momonosuke Kozuki, with both of them being born 28 years ago and given the shogunate of Wano as their birthright. Interestingly, however, each of them share traits and goals moreso with the other's father rather than their own. Yamato has been trapped on Wano for much of her life and wishes to leave and set sail with a pirate crew like Oden, while Momonosuke has been out on the sea but wishes to rule over Wano, much like Kaido. Additionally, Yamato desires to directly become Oden while Momonosuke possesses the very same Devil Fruit transformation as Kaido.
	+ Both Yamato and Momonosuke ate their Devil Fruits purely out of hunger without even knowing what they were consuming.
* Yamato being forced to wear exploding handcuffs by her father in order to fulfill her father's plans for her and prevent her from leaving their homeland is very similar to what happened to Sanji in the *Whole Cake Island Arc*.
* Yamato battling Ace to a draw to defend the territory of one of the Four Emperors, then later befriending Ace and taking an interest in Luffy due to Ace's relationship with him, also occurred with Jimbei.