Shimotsuki Koushirou

Round-framed glasses rest on a deeply lined, aging face, and Koushirou keeps his black hair gathered into a single lengthy tail behind him. A gray yukata is his usual attire, and on certain days he adds a beige haori marked at the left breast with a pair of crossed blades.

A constant smile hides a man who often reads as remote and hard to ruffle. He once held the old conviction that women lacked the physical strength for a warrior's path, a belief that cast a shadow over his daughter. Even so, he prizes raw ability over reputation, telling Zoro that taking up piracy would not diminish his worth so long as he honored the blade. When Kuina died, his only spoken reaction was a comment on how fragile people are, which may simply have masked his grief. In later years he grew uneasy as his pupils began imitating Zoro by practicing the Three Sword Style.

Koushirou entered the world inside Shimotsuki Village, located in East Blue, as the son of Kouzaburou, and he became a father at twenty-nine when his wife bore Kuina, roughly two years past the death of Gol D. Roger. He worried whether a daughter could one day run his school, though his wife assured him the girl would grow strong. A young Zoro arrived to challenge the dojo, lost a duel to Kuina, and stayed on as a pupil. Over time Koushirou passed down Wano swordsmanship and the lesson that a real blade understands what its wielder means to protect. After Kuina fell down a staircase and died, he handed the boy her treasured sword, the Wado Ichimonji, at Zoro's request. In the years that follow he keeps watch over Zoro's rise from afar, lays newspapers of the Straw Hats on Kuina's grave, and continues teaching his students. The dojo also once supplied food to the Revolutionary Army.