Ipponmatsu

Ipponmatsu is the owner of an arms shop in Loguetown and Ipponume's husband. He was the former owner of both Sandai Kitetsu and Yubashiri.

Appearance
He is a short man with black hair that goes to the sides of his head. He has tan skin and wears a blue shirt. His nose is red.

The crest-like piece of hair on his forehead shifts between arcing up to arcing down several times in the chapter.

Personality
For the most part, he is a stereotypical merchant: cynical, unscrupulous, and—especially according to his wife Ipponume—money-grubbing. He has very few qualms about selling weapons to criminals or trying to mislead new customers into uneven bargains, and is usually surly to those he cannot make a profit from.

However, he still holds a genuine passion for swords and swordsmanship, and for many years refused to sell Sandai Kitetsu for fear that its curse would injure or kill the buyers. After meeting Roronoa Zoro, this passion came to the fore, rekindling his faith in "true" swordsmen.

Ipponume
Ipponmatsu has a good relationship with his wife. He calls her "honey" and "dear" and cleans the bathtub for her. However, Ipponume thinks that he is a "cheapskate".

Zoro
When he first met Zoro, he thought that he was an amateur because of the little amount of money he had with him at the time. However, Ipponmatsu was greatly impressed by the swordsman's skill after he tested his luck against the curse of Sandai Kitetsu. He even gave Zoro his family heirloom for free. The shop owner believed that he entrusted his dream to Zoro. Ipponmatsu still thinks highly of Zoro after two years since he now has an enlarged poster of Zoro in his bath.

Marines
Ipponmatsu strongly dislikes Loguetown's Marines, holding them directly responsible for reducing the town's pirate population—and with it, much of his shop's customer base. In particular, he has dubbed Smoker a "monster", not only for his ruthless competence, but for his considerable Devil Fruit abilities.

He also holds a low opinion of Smoker's main adjunct Tashigi, viewing her naïve personality and physical clumsiness as a hazard to both his shop and his business practices. Nevertheless, during her posting in Loguetown, he appears to have been the regular cleaner for her sword Shigure.

Past
At some point in the past, Ipponmatsu became the owner of an arms shop in Loguetown. He used to have multiple pirate customers that were looking to enter the Grand Line. However, since Smoker was put in charge of the Marine base on the island, Ipponmatsu barely had any customers.

Loguetown Arc
At some point, Tashigi brought her sword, Shigure, to Ipponmatsu's arms shop to get it polished. The shop owner accepted the job and later finished polishing the sword.

When he first met Zoro, Ipponmatsu acted polite due to Zoro being his first customer in a long time, but he became dismissive when he discovered that Zoro only had 100,000 on him. After he recognized the Wado Ichimonji held by the swordsman, he tried to fool Zoro to sell it for far less than it was worth, but Zoro refused to sell it. He stopped trying when Tashigi showed up and ruined his plan. His greedy attitude changed when Zoro tested his luck against the Sandai Kitetsu, tossing it up into the air and holding out his arm to see if it would be sliced off. The sword missed Zoro's arm entirely, defying Ipponmatsu's refusal to sell it due to the curse on the blade.

Ipponmatsu was impressed by Zoro's skill, so he gave him both Sandai Kitetsu and Yubashiri, his family heirloom and his store's best sword. He told his wife that he was passing on his dream to Zoro.

From the Decks of the World
While cleaning his bathroom, Ipponmatsu proudly talked to Ipponume about the enlarged poster of Zoro on the wall behind him.

Anime and Manga Differences
In the manga, Ipponume tells him to go clean the bathtub, while in the anime she tells him to take out the garbage.

Translation and Dub Issues
His name is one of the series' rare "split" names, with Ippon (いっぽん) written in hiragana and Matsu (マツ) in katakana. The former part appears to be a reference to the "one full point" (一本) style of scoring used for many Japanese martial arts, including kendo; the latter is the common name for the Japanese pine (松). Together, they poetically (if somewhat inaccurately) mark him as a "lone pine" in the world.

The Viz manga, possibly mistaking the hiragana part of his name as a title, refers to him only as Matsu.

Additionally, the 4Kids-dubbed anime pushes him into the "basement dweller" stereotype, casting Ipponume as his mother instead of his wife.

Non-Playable Appearances

 * One Piece: Become the Pirate King!
 * Legend of the Rainbow Island
 * Aim! The King of Berry
 * One Piece (Game Boy Advance)

Trivia

 * Ipponmatsu made a cameo appearance in the The Detective Memoirs of Chief Straw Hat Luffy TV special. He was the owner of a shop that was attacked by the Clown Clan. He insulted Buggy's nose, so the criminal almost shot him. Buggy then stole all of his money. However, as discovered by Chief Luffy, Ipponmatsu's money was counterfeit, so he was arrested later.
 * Ipponmatsu's favorite food is ippon udon, a singular thick udon noodle which is usually served on its own in soup.

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