Matsuba Nazawa

Matsuba surfaces in the novel only through what other characters recall about him, and the text never sets down how he looked. He functions purely as a mentioned figure, so no depiction of his features exists. What the story does establish is his standing as headman of Nazawaka City and his role as the father of Taketo and Umeno Nazawa.

Every indication points to a dutiful man, a reading backed by his leadership of the village and by his decision to take personal command of rebuilding the town's embankment. Beyond his civic duties, he practiced swordsmanship and counted himself a fervent admirer of Dracule Mihawk.

As a child Matsuba was close with the couple who became Tsubaki's parents, and the three often played scavenger-hunt games together; the friendship ran deep enough that he later lent Tsubaki his name. While his son Umeno was young, Matsuba took charge of restoring Nazawaka City's crumbling embankment, doing much of the labor himself before townsfolk joined in, completing it seven years before the present.

Near the end of his life he wrote the museum's theme music for the Mihawk Memorial Museum, secretly encoding within the tune the hiding place of his will. That will appointed his second son Umeno as the next headman and split his assets evenly between the two boys. Around four years before the present he mailed Tsubaki's parents a puzzle echoing their old childhood games, asking them to meet at a paper workshop in three days; a fever struck Tsubaki, his parents stayed home, and that night the elder son Taketo set the workshop ablaze with Matsuba trapped inside, killing him.

After his death Taketo briefly stepped into the headman's role, and his reputed brilliance kept the handover orderly. A year later the concealed will came to light, naming Umeno the rightful successor; Taketo was arrested for the killing, and Umeno rose to lead Nazawaka City.