Yamato

Yamato
Statistics
Japanese Name:	ヤマト
Romanized Name:	Yamato
Official English Name:	Yamato
Debut:	Chapter 983
Affiliations:	Beasts Pirates (former); Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance
Alias:	"Kozuki Oden" (光月おでん, Kōzuki Oden?) (self-proclaimed)
Status:	Alive
Age:	28

Yamato is the daughter of Kaido of the Four Emperors and self-proclaims to be "Kozuki Oden". This profound admiration for the legendary samurai has led to the decision to embody everything related to the samurai to the extent of proclaiming to be a man as well, and hence Yamato is widely referred to as Kaido's son.

Appearance

Yamato is slightly over twice Luffy's height, but not nearly as tall as Kaido. Yamato has long, white hair that is tied 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 Kaido. Yamato also has large, orange eyes with prominent eyelashes, and wears gold hoop earrings on both ears and has red horns. Clothing-wise, Yamato wears a pair of red hakama pants and sandals, and, much like Oden, wears a large purple and white nio-daisuki behind the back.

Yamato's current outfit is a sleeveless white garment with a diamond-shaped design on both sides and an indigo, wisp-patterned bottom half. This garment was originally a sleeved kimono with long white sleeves, but these were later ripped off, leaving the garment sleeveless and making it more form-fitting. Also, while in disguise, Yamato originally also wore a hannya mask, which has a wig with an extremely long and wild mane attached to the top and a long goatee attached to the bottom.

Gallery

Yamato's color scheme in the manga.

Yamato wearing a mask and full kimono.

Personality

Yamato holds immense admiration for the legendary samurai Kozuki Oden, emulating every aspect of him, including his name, appearance, goals, and even his gender, reasoning that, since Oden was a man, then it was also necessary to become a man. Yamato wishes to fulfill Oden's dream of reopening the borders of Wano Country. Due to this admiration of Oden, Yamato often does things and considers certain actions based on assuming the identity of Oden himself. This led to Yamato being considered delusional by Luffy, Ulti, Shinobu, and Momonosuke.

Relationships

Kaido

— Yamato severing parental ties with Kaido.

Kaido is Yamato's father and the two have a strained relationship, as Yamato idolizes Kaido's enemy, Kozuki Oden. When Yamato told Kaido of the desire to be Oden, Kaido responded with violent beating and has subsequently been cruel to Yamato numerous times since childhood, having kept Yamato imprisoned on Onigashima since the age of eight years old. He even had Yamato cuffed with explosive shackles to prevent a possible escape. Yamato originally had some doubts that they would explode, but after Luffy removed them and they did in fact explode, Yamato realized that Kaido was actually willing to kill his own daughter and, as a result, chose to sever relations with him, such to the point of proclaiming that there would not be any concern for Kaido if he were killed during the raid on Onigashima.

Kaido's overall view of Yamato is unknown. Although, Yamato has emulated Oden for the past 20 years to the point of even dressing up as a man like him, and although Kaido disapproves of this idolizing of him, he does refer to Yamato as his son, in a way possibly respecting Yamato's desire be a man just like Oden was. However, Kaido does not seem to be aware that Yamato wishes to fulfill Oden's dream of opening Wano's borders, a cause which he is opposed to. Furthermore, though he has called his daughter an "idiot," he wished to have Yamato participate in his party during the Fire Festival and later announced across Onigashima his intention for Yamato to replace Orochi as shogun, showing that he places great trust in Yamato to assume such a position.

Monkey D. Luffy

Luffy and Yamato charge into battle.

After failing to set sail with Ace, Yamato had been waiting for his brother, Monkey D. Luffy, to arrive at Onigashima. For this reason, Yamato chased and clashed with Luffy after finding him, ignoring the young pirate's time constraints in order to talk to him, even if for just five minutes. Yamato then trusted Luffy enough to request his help in achieving Oden's dream of opening Wano's borders, and then expressed a wish to be freed from Kaido and an intent to leave Wano with Luffy's crew as a means to be free and explore the sea like Oden did. Therefore, after Luffy removed the explosive handcuffs Kaido had used to imprison Yamato, the two decided they would fight Kaido together. Their trust has slowly grown and Luffy even entrusted Yamato to help them protect Momonosuke.

Luffy refers to Yamato by the nickname "Yama-o" (ヤマ男^?), similar to the nicknames he uses for Trafalgar Law, Bartolomeo, and Eustass Kid. Yamato appears to not understand Luffy's use of nicknames, as evidenced by the attempt to correct Luffy with the former's actual name, as well as Ulti's name when Luffy gives her a nickname as well.

Portgas D. Ace

Yamato had met Ace at some point in the past and had tried to sail out of Wano with him, but was kept prisoner on Onigashima due to the explosive handcuffs. Yamato seems to respect him, as evidenced by the conversation with Luffy in which Yamato fondly stated that Luffy was reminiscent of Ace and that, although it was not possible to set sail with Ace, it would be possible to leave with Luffy due to them being brothers.

Abilities and Powers

Yamato is a very powerful warrior, with Black Maria noting that bringing Yamato back to Kaido's fortress after having escaped would be a difficult task.

Physical Abilities

Yamato possesses monstrous strength resembling 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 the pirate increased his strength exponentially with Gear Second and Gear Third. When Yamato countered a punch from Luffy with a kick, the powerful collision destroyed much of the surrounding wall and ceiling and blew back the Beasts Pirates around them. Luffy was even easily picked up and held with just one arm while running due to Yamato's stature.

Yamato is quite 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.

Weapons

File:Yamato's Kanabo.png

Yamato's kanabo.

Yamato wields a giant kanabo club much like Kaido, albeit studded and more slender, while Kaido's is spiked and a bit thicker. In addition to the kanabo being a powerful blunt weapon, Yamato has masterful technique with it, being capable of moving it to counter Luffy's rapid attacks with little effort.

Attacks

• Raimei Hakke (雷鳴八卦, Raimei Hakke^?, literally meaning "Thunderclap Eight Trigrams"): A technique used by Kaido and imitated by Yamato, in which the user lunges forward at their target with blinding speed and swings their 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. It is called Thunder Bagua in the VIZ translation. However, while Kaido uses only one hand to swing his kanabo, Yamato swings it with both hands instead, and Ulti considers this attack to only be half as powerful as Kaido's, calling it Raimei Yonke (雷鳴四卦^?, literally meaning "Thunderclap Four Trigrams;" Viz: "Blunder Bagua") instead, though the people around her pointed out that it still hurt her greatly.

History

Past

As a kid, Yamato told Kaido of the personal desire to become the great samurai Kozuki Oden, however, this resulted in Kaido violently opposing it by beating Yamato up. Some time later, Yamato was present at Oden's execution during the Legendary Hour twenty years ago, and was immediately mortified by the sight. However, although angered and saddened by Oden's death at the hands of Kaido and Orochi, Yamato felt a burning passion rise, and after discovering Oden's logbook in Kuri, Yamato realized that someone needed to carry on Oden's will, and so began to emulate everything about Oden himself as to carry on his legacy. However, when Kaido learned of his daughter's intents, he placed Yamato in explosive shackles to prevent any chance of escape from Onigashima.

At some point between two and five years ago, Yamato met the pirate Portgas D. Ace and had expressed the desire to go to sea with Ace and his crew, but because of the explosive shackles that threatened to blow up if Yamato had left, there was no choice but to remain behind. However, some time afterwards, Yamato began waiting for Monkey D. Luffy to come to Onigashima.

Four Emperors Saga

Wano Country Arc

Yamato saves Luffy from Ulti with Thunder Bagua

On the day of Kaido and Kurozumi Orochi's party during the Fire Festival, Yamato disappeared from Kaido's mansion to look for Luffy. Yamato passed Eustass Kid's group which raised a small commotion, and ended up finding Luffy fighting Ulti near the front entrance of the mansion. Seeing as how Luffy was being held down by Ulti, Yamato immediately knocked Ulti out in one blow, and quickly carried off the young pirate to a private space to talk while revealing "himself" to be the son of Kaido. Since Luffy was in a hurry and had no desire to talk, the two engaged in a powerful and destructive clash with Yamato managing to counter all of Luffy's attacks, all the while trying to convince him to listen. However, with Luffy stubbornly continuing to refuse to listen, Yamato was starting to get annoyed, but then remarked that this fight with Luffy was reminiscent of past fights with a certain someone.

Eventually, Yamato took Luffy to the attic immediately after their clash and was able to get him to stay and talk for five minutes, in which Yamato first discussed how Oden had left behind a logbook and that someone needed to carry on Oden's will. Yamato then removed the mask that had been covering "his" face this whole time and exclaimed that the two of them should fight alongside each other to achieve the legendary samurai's dream of opening Wano's border. Upon seeing that Yamato was actually a girl, Luffy exclaimed out in surprise, and Yamato explained that since Oden was a man, then it was also necessary to become a man as well. Yamato then complimented Luffy on how strong he was and then told Luffy how he was just like Ace. Afterwards, Yamato asked for a ride on the young pirate's ship since he was Ace's younger brother, while proclaiming to be speaking as Oden himself. Hearing this, Luffy objected and complained how it was not possible for Yamato to be Oden. In response, Yamato conceded that it was impossible to truly be Oden since it was not possible to be free like Oden would be. Yamato then showed Luffy the explosive shackles and revealed to him how it had been impossible to leave Onigashima with Ace and his crew despite wanting to do so. Hearing this, Luffy offered to remove the shackles, but reminded Yamato that he would be beating up Kaido. Kaido's speech then started and the two listened on, but they then fell out of the attic when the floor collapsed below them. Afterwards, Kaido exclaimed his "son" would be the the next shogun of Wano, with Yamato immediately refusing out loud while running towards the platform with Luffy as the latter asked for the path towards Momonosuke.

As the two ran through the Beasts Pirates, Luffy informed Yamato that Momonosuke and his retainers were alive the whole time, much to Yamato's shock. Luffy then removed Yamato's handcuffs and tossed them away before they detonated and caused a huge explosion that sent them flying to the Performance Stage. Seeing the explosion, Yamato realized that Kaido was truly willing to kill his own child, and so chose to completely sever relations with him. The two then arrived at the Live Floor with Yamato telling Luffy to hurry so that they could attack Kaido alongside Oden's retainers. However, they are intercepted by Ulti, with the two briefly clashing and Ulti questioning Yamato for attacking her earlier. Yamato then replied that it had to be done and made a statement about becoming Kozuki Oden at last, to which Ulti exclaimed her confusion at what she just heard. One of the Beast Pirates then reported to Yamato that Kaido was being attacked and that there were enemies everywhere, but Yamato made it clear that they were now on opposing sides and that it did not matter if Kaido died.

Later, Momonosuke was freed from the crucifix, and Luffy asked Yamato to help Shinobu protect him, to which Yamato wondered if it was okay, but then quickly realized that it was obviously natural to do so as Momonosuke's "father." When meeting Shinobu and Momonosuke, Yamato once again fell under the delusion of being Oden by exclaiming to be Oden himself, unintentionally scaring Shinobu and Momonosuke and causing the pair to run away instead of accepting Yamato's help. Yamato ran after the two for a while until they were attacked by Sasaki's platoon. After Shinobu was wounded, Yamato stepped in to protect them.

Major Battles

• Yamato vs. Monkey D. Luffy
• Yamato vs. Ulti (Onigashima Live Floor)

Trivia

• "Yamato" (大和（やまと）^?), 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. 

Yamato shares some similarities to Charlotte Linlin's daughter, Charlotte Chiffon.

• Both are cruelly abused children to one of the Four Emperors and were used in some way in their parents plans.
• Both sided with the Straw Hat Pirates to take down their parents after choosing to sever their relations with them.