Umeno Nazawa

Built broadly with a square face, Umeno wears his dark hair down to the shoulders. For clothing he favors a worn hakama, a beaded necklace, and geta sandals. By Zoro's estimate, the man appears to be somewhere in his thirties.

Kindness runs through Umeno, who feeds Zoro despite the swordsman having trespassed into the city. He prizes both his blade work and his patrol duty, and he holds to his promises; after the duel between them went against him, he made good on his pledge and led Zoro to the museum honoring Mihawk. That said, an arrogant streak leaves him careless about giving offense, voicing his mind without much thought for who it angers. Townsfolk are torn over him, branding him a hopeless failure and an admirable figure in equal measure, and before his rise to headman he believed himself fit only for night patrols rather than the administrative load his brother carried.

In his youth, Umeno pitched in with his father Matsuba and elder brother Taketo to reinforce the city's crumbling embankment, work that wrapped up some seven years before the story opens. He took up kendo at a dojo near Shimotsuki Village and became capable enough for the local vigilante corps, while a boyhood habit of breaking into places left him handy with locks. About four years earlier, a blaze at the paper workshop claimed Matsuba's life and passed the headman's seat to Taketo, who turned down every request to rebuild it. After Umeno crossed paths with the intruding Zoro on patrol and was bested by the seventeen-year-old, he honored the wager, walked him to the museum, and then put him forward for the corps. Working beside Zoro and Tsubaki, he came to realize that Taketo had set the workshop ablaze himself to corner a secret paper formula. Crooked Marines exonerated Taketo, but the unearthing of Matsuba's will marked Umeno as the rightful heir. Once Zoro tore open the embankment and overpowered Taketo, Umeno stepped into leadership of the city, and half a year on he channeled Zoro's donated bounty money into a fresh paper factory and the revival of the local economy.