Shimotsuki Kouzaburou

In his final years Kouzaburou cut the figure of a towering elder, crowned by a tuft of grayish-white hair pulled into a topknot, with a thick unibrow that flared outward and a beard tracing his jaw. A scar marked his left temple. His usual dress was a dark kimono patterned with purple blossoms paired with sandals, and he kept a katana at his side while puffing on a long kiseru pipe.

Adventure ran in his blood, enough that he broke Wano's law just to see the wider seas, and a streak of heroism led him to defend an East Blue village from raiders. Old age soured him into a grumpy, solitary fisherman who first wanted nothing to do with the pestering Zoro. The boy's stubborn drive eventually won him over, and he lent the child real swords plus hard-won wisdom about a blade's nature. He held fierce pride in his finest work, Enma, and argued that so-called cursed swords prove their worth only for a swordsman strong enough to master their wild temper, dismissing those who cannot as unworthy.

Sukiyaki described him as a legendary smith whose reputation spread far beyond Wano. His masterpieces, Wado Ichimonji and Enma, rank among the twenty-one Great Grade Blades, the latter able to drink in its wielder's Armament Haki. By his twilight years his hands had weakened, and he could only turn out low-grade practice blades. As a Wano samurai he was also a gifted fighter who once guarded a village from bandits and then trained its people, and even in old age he never went unarmed.