Kouzuki Sukiyaki

Sukiyaki is a sizable man standing a touch over average height. During his years on the throne, in his forties and fifties, his black hair rose into three forward-pointing tufts at the front and was bound into a topknot behind. A short beard forked into three points at his chin, paired with a thin mustache that curled upward at either end. He had heavy brows, pronounced lashes, and a faintly reddened nose, and dressed in a pale kimono and dark robe both scattered with floral designs.

In old age his face is deeply lined and his white hair falls to his back. As Hitetsu he conceals himself with a red tengu mask whose nose stretches and contracts endlessly, fitted with white wings that echo an angel's. Over a light gray kimono dotted with purple at the hem he wears a black jacket edged inside with green puffs, dark blue baggy trousers, and a pair of towering geta.

As a ruler Sukiyaki came across as stern yet even-handed, going so far as to cast out his own son Oden over his brutish conduct, though Yasuie read the banishment as tough love meant to reform him. He valued order, and granted Oden the daimyo rank once the young man pacified the lawless Kuri.

Losing his throne and his freedom left him steeped in shame, to the point that he weighed taking his own life and at first meant to stay hidden from his grandchildren entirely, even addressing his dead son and their family with formal honorifics to keep his secret. He relented only on the understanding that he would pass his knowledge to Momonosuke and then vanish back into solitude. In his Hitetsu guise his gentler side showed plainly, above all toward his ward Tama, whom he guarded fiercely; he even sheltered the newly orphaned Toko, taking her along to the festival to lift her spirits. A devoted smith, he held swords and their makers in deep regard, refusing to let Luffy casually borrow the cursed Nidai Kitetsu, and he prized his collection of pretty-girl kokeshi dolls.

More than eighty years back, Sukiyaki's heirless father left the daimyos uneasy about succession, a crisis the Kurozumi head exploited by poisoning his rivals to stand as the lone candidate. The Kouzuki line then produced an heir, and Sukiyaki in time inherited the shogunate. He fathered Oden some fifty-nine years before the present and, like his ancestor Kotetsu, forged blades as a pastime, crafting both Ame no Habakiri and Sandai Kitetsu. Frustrated by Oden's wild behavior, he disowned and exiled him, only to reverse course and grant him the daimyo seat after Oden brought peace to Kuri.

Roughly three decades ago, deceived by a Kurozumi imposter, he allowed Orochi a post in the castle. Around the same time he fell ill and shared a final conversation with a visiting Oden before Orochi locked him away in a concealed chamber and announced to the country that the shogun had died. He endured captivity for many years, breaking out by unknown means less than twenty years ago to find his son executed and Wano poisoned into a wasteland, a sight that nearly drove him to seppuku.

Choosing to live on, he obtained Oden's swords Enma and the blade he himself had made, intending them for Hiyori and Momonosuke, and settled in Amigasa Village beneath the Hitetsu mask to await his grandchildren. He took in the girl Tama and set her to weaving kasa. When Luffy arrived during the Wano conflict, Sukiyaki first attacked him over Tama's stolen rice, then scolded him for bluntly announcing Ace's death. He later handed Oden's two heirlooms to their rightful bearers, gifting Ame no Habakiri to Momonosuke and surrendering Enma to Zoro at Hiyori's wish. After Orochi and Kaidou fell, he finally unveiled his identity to Nico Robin, confirmed that Pluton rested within Wano, guided her and Law to the preserved underwater 'Old Wano' and its Road Poneglyph, and at last tearfully reunited with his grandchildren.