Kurozumi Kanjuro

Kurozumi Kanjuro, nicknamed "Evening Shower" Kanjuro, is a samurai from Wano and member of the Kurozumi Family. After losing his parents, he was instructed by Kurozumi Orochi to operate undercover within the Kozuki Family. Kanjuro became Kozuki Oden's retainer and one of the Nine Red Scabbards while secretly aiding Orochi in his rise to power and efforts to eliminate the Kozuki bloodline, by feeding him information. He was born 59 years before the present day, but traveled 20 years forward in time when he was 39 years old. He acted as an ally to the Straw Hat Pirates in his undercover role in the Dressrosa Arc and Zou Arc, but became an antagonist in the Wano Country Arc after showing his true colors. Kanjuro's appearance matches the stereotype of a traditional Kabuki performer. He has bright long red hair down to the floor with the front hair sticking outward and down to his chest, with big lips and blush marks on his cheek in a similar manner to Bentham. He is rather tall, standing at 347 cm. He wears a traditional samurai outfit with a ribbon in the middle and zori for footwear. On his back Kanjuro carries a large brush which he keeps in readiness for use with his powers. As a retainer of the Kozuki Family, he bears the crest somewhere in his body. According to Orochi, due to Kanjuro being raised in the theatre, his main purpose in life is to act as someone else. Due to his parents dying during the persecution of his family, Kanjuro wishes to avenge them and then die. Kanjuro has thus played the role of a loyal retainer to the Kozuki Family so that he would eventually be killed with them.

In his role as a Kozuki retainer, Kanjuro seems to act quite caring, since he suggested that they leave the island and devised a plan to do so. Kanjuro can also be calm and level headed, as he reprimanded Shinobu for being too rash in resolving unexpected setbacks. However, there are times where he can act absent-minded, such as when he created a net for the citizens of Dressrosa to climb up the old King's Plateau, not knowing they were aiming to capture Usopp and King Riku. He also fooled around during the escalade of Zunesha's leg and failed to realize that Bariete was falling towards him, hitting Kin'emon and him and making them fall off the elephant. Kanjuro has immense strength, able to easily carry around and use his giant ink brush without tiring, as well as clash with Kawamatsu, an extremely powerful fishman in terms of physical power.


While imbuing his brush with Haki, Kanjuro was able to push back and significantly slowed down the contraction speed of Doflamingo's Birdcage. Kanjuro has some skills in making brushes, using the hair of people and corpses to make brushes for a living. Due to being raised in a theater troupe, Kanjuro is a consummate actor which is further improved by his personal lack of individuality as stated by Orochi. He was able to perfectly pose as a loyal retainer of the Kozuki Family for 21 years, fully adapting to his new identity and even faked genuine emotions such as sorrow at the death of Oden and later Yasuie despite not having any attachments to them in the first place. He also hid his true strength from them, giving them the facade of an amateur artist who could not make full use of his Devil Fruit's potential, in order to give himself a strategic advantage despite the risk he put them (himself included) through when his purposely poor drawings caused them to nearly fall off Zunesha. Although some events raised suspicions of a traitor in the family's midst, no family member or retainer ever suspected that Kanjuro was the spy until he told them.  Kanjuro ate a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that allows him to produce ink from his body, being able to channel it through his ink brush or hair. The ink appears to have special properties, as Kanjuro can turn anything he draws into a three-dimensional object, including living organisms, by saying "Appear". Creations have the same abilities as the original, such as a bird's ability to fly, or food being edible (although, according to Kin'emon, it hurts his stomach). He can also affect his own body, as he hid inside a wall as a drawing to avoid detection. The fruit's powers also work in reverse, causing the drawing to revert to its inanimate 2D form if it comes in contact with a flat surface. Kanjuro can also order the drawing to return to its inanimate form.

The strength and stamina of these drawn constructs are dependent on the quality of the drawing. Living creatures that are drawn poorly will be extremely weak and struggle to do anything, quickly reverting back to their inanimate form once they reach their limit, and will dissolve when coming into contact with water. Realistically-drawn constructs do not share such weaknesses, as Kanjuro's clone, snakes and crane all withstood a heavy downpour of rain without issue, and were able to act without any struggle, although they'll still dissolve if sufficiently damaged. When operating with the Kozuki Family, Kanjuro pretended that he was very bad at drawing, giving them only poor constructs that all struggle to accomplish any meager feat. However, he is actually an extremely skilled and masterful artist, able to draw life-like creatures including human beings and is capable of controlling their actions and even their speech. When the Nine Red Scabbards sailed out to Onigashima to confront Kaido, Kanjuro sent a perfectly drawn clone of himself with them, with none of them noticing until Kin'emon decapitated the drawing in an attempt to kill Kanjuro after he revealed his true allegiance. The speed and precision of Kanjuro's artistry are also impressive, with his summoned animal drawings being as capable as actual ones, if not more, like snakes with powerful binding ability or elegantly flying cranes. This angered Kin'emon, who was used to Kanjuro's flawed and burdensome scribbles. Furthermore, Kanjuro hid his powers' more potent usages from the Kozuki Family, such as generating ink from his hair to create a rain of hardened ink droplets. Nuke Suzume, literally meaning "Escaping Sparrow"): Kanjuro draws a large sparrow in order to escape a confined area. However, due to being poorly drawn, the sparrow cannot fly very well. He first used it to escape Dressrosa's prison with Kin'emon. Nobori Ryu, literally meaning "Rising Dragon"): Kanjuro draws a long dragon which cannot fly, but can climb up cliffs and steep surfaces. He first used it to take him and the Straw Hat Pirates and allies up one of Zou's legs. However, his creation disgusted Kin'emon, as he hates the sight of dragons, while Robin, in contrast, actually blushed because she found it very cute. The Straw Hat Pirates named the dragon "Ryunosuke". Nekozaemon: Kanjuro draws a giant cat with dis-proportionally short and small limbs. By his claim, cats are good climbers, which was the purpose of drawing Nekozaemon, but due to it being poorly drawn with short limbs, the cat climbed at a very slow rate, seemingly exhausted after a short amount of time. He first drew it to climb back up one of Zunesha's legs after falling off Ryunosuke. Torasaburo: Kanjuro draws a tiger that is fairly rotund and has a short tail and crudely drawn stripes. He first drew it to climb back up one of Zunesha's legs for the second time after Nekozaemon failed. "Saburo" means "third son," referencing how it was the third drawing to climb up Zunesha. Sumigumo, literally meaning "Ink Clouds"): By pulling on his strands of hair, Kanjuro shoots out a thick cloud of ink from his mane, in a way reminiscent of an octopus. In the Viz Manga, this is called Ink Clouds. Ukiyo Yudachi Ezu, literally meaning "Fleeting World Evening Shower Painting"): Once the cloud is positioned above the intended target, Kanjuro releases a shower of ink drops. The latter, which Kanjuro calls "Ink Arrows", are very sharp and can easily pierce through wood and flesh alike. Kanjuro first used this technique on the Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance's fleet in order to escape unimpeded. Ukiyo-e is a Japanese genre of art that was popular from the 17th through 19th centuries. The name of the technique is also linked with Kanjuro's epithet of "Evening Shower". In the Viz Manga, this is called Ukiyo Portrait: Evening Shower.

Kikunojo

Kikunojo of the Lingering Snow is a samurai from Wano Country and a retainer for the Kozuki Family, serving as one of Kozuki Oden's Nine Red Scabbards. She is also the younger sister of Izo, and the daughter of the dancing school head of the Hanayanagi School in Ringo. After traveling 20 years forward in time, she donned the alias O-Kiku and worked as a tea house poster girl in Okobore Town. Although biologically male, Kikunojo has a feminine appearance and presents herself as a woman. She is very tall, easily towering over Luffy and Zoro at 287 cm. She has long dark violet (dark blue in the anime) hair that falls onto her back and indigo eyes. She also wears sandals and a yellow kimono with chrysanthemum floral patterns and a pink and cream and lavender obi. When Kikunojo prepares for combat, she ties her hair into a ponytail with a red ribbon, and when heading towards Onigashima for the battle against the Beasts Pirates, she wore a full set of Japanese armor. Before being transported to the future, Kiku dressed in more male-like clothing typical of a samurai. After arriving in the future, Kiku began showing a significantly more effeminate side, such as wearing red lipstick and dressing more in feminine clothing.  Kikunojo identifies herself as a "woman at heart", and thus presents herself in a traditionally feminine manner.​ She is a very upbeat and friendly person. To friends, she is helpful and nurturing, as seen when she treated Zoro's injuries and tended to Tama when she was being healed of her poisoning.​


Kikunojo is shown to be a confident, hardened warrior whose friendly nature translates into a strong sense of justice and desire to protect those around her. This was first demonstrated when she served as an ally to Luffy in his mission to rescue Tama from the Beasts Pirates. Kiku even went as far as to cut off Urashima's top-knot (a sign of great disrespect to someone of the samurai class) after hearing him use dehumanizing language toward a crowd of Bakura Town residents, regardless of the fact that just moments prior the same people had berated her due to low social standing. When Kin'emon contemplated the possibility of one of the Nine Red Scabbards being a spy, Kikunojo rebuked him for being indecisive about the matter and told him that they should identify the spy immediately.



Kikunojo's desire to do right can sometimes result in her making rash actions, as she acknowledged when she inadvertently showed her samurai abilities in front of the Bakura Town citizens while living in hiding. Afterwards, she showed more restraint about going to fight enemies, and had to be convinced by Zoro to use her abilities to help save Tama. Kikunojo typically becomes extremely emotional when she loses something dear to her, as she quickly teared up and ran off to be alone after going to the ruins of Oden Castle for the first time since Oden and Toki's deaths. Additionally, she was very emotional when Kanjuro revealed himself to be working for Orochi. Kikunojo takes pride in her role as a retainer of the Kozuki clan, and occasionally refers to herself using ​sessha​, an archaic pronoun similar to "I" in the English language, which is used primarily by male samurai.​ When Momonosuke used the word "Sunacchi", Kikunojo quickly rebuked him for doing so as she believes members of a noble family like the Kozuki should not use coarse words associated with commoners. As a samurai and a member of the Nine Red Scabbards, Kikunojo is an extremely skilled swordswoman. Her strength was acknowledged by Orochi himself. Kikunojo wields a katana with expert precision, as she was capable of swiftly cutting off Urashima's topknot and fought against several Gifters and samurai effortlessly.


Kikunojo and Izo were born in Wano Country. During their childhood, they were raised in a dancing school, but their family was torn apart after their father was arrested. Afterwards, they had to survive on the streets in Ringo. When Kozuki Oden arrived about 39 years ago and gave them food, they joined him. After Oden became daimyo of Kuri, Kikunojo became one of his retainers. For the next few years, Kikunojo and the other retainers educated themselves and trained to become dignified warriors. 30 years ago, they visited the Flower Capital with Oden. After meeting the Whitebeard Pirates, Oden and his retainers had a feast with them. After the Whitebeard Pirates left Wano two weeks later, the retainers discovered Oden, Izo, Inuarashi, and Nekomamushi to be missing. During Oden's absence, Kikunojo and her fellow retainers protected Kuri. When Oden and the two minks returned to Wano with the Roger Pirates, the retainers greeted Oden, but before they could say anymore, Toki stopped them from convincing Oden to stay in Wano so he could continue his journey with Roger. Nekomamushi and Inuarashi told Kikunojo about Izo's stay with the Whitebeard Pirates. Around six months before Oden finished his voyage, Kikunojo and her fellow retainers were furious at Kurozumi Orochi for abusing his position as shogun. While Inuarashi and Kawamatsu stayed behind at Oden Castle, the other retainers marched to the Flower Capital to confront Orochi only to discover that a group of Beasts Pirates were in Kuri threatening Oden's family. When Oden returned to Wano after finishing his journey, the retainers (except Denjiro and Ashura, who were elsewhere at the time) welcomed him back and told him about Wano's situation. Oden then ordered his retainers to protect his family and Kuri before charging to the capital by himself. After Oden failed to kill Orochi, the retainers remained loyal to him for the next five years despite Oden acting like a fool and losing the respect of most of Wano's people. 20 years ago, Oden finally had enough and decided to take down Kaido. The retainers eagerly followed him and marched with him to Onigashima. On the way to Onigashima, the group was confronted by Kaido and his crew in the Udon region. In the ensuing battle, the samurai were joined by Shinobu. Unfortunately, the samurai were overwhelmed in the end. Oden and the Scabbards were then imprisoned in the Flower Capital and sentenced to be boiled alive in three days. All ten prisoners were later brought to the execution site, at which point Oden made a deal with Kaido. After Oden stepped into the pot of boiling oil, the retainers were about to join him, but Oden grabbed a plank and ordered them to stand on it as he held them over the pot. As Oden endured the hour, he explained to his retainers the reason Wano Country was isolated and requested them to open Wano's borders for him. Oden successfully survived the hour, but Orochi summoned a firing squad to execute Oden and his retainers. Oden once again told his retainers to open Wano's borders before throwing them far away from the pot. The Scabbards fled with tears as Oden met his demise. As they were chased by an army of pursuers, Shinobu gave the Scabbards their weapons. On the way back to Oden Castle, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi were captured by the shogun's forces and Denjiro and Ashura split from the group to fight their enemies. By the time the rest of the group reached Oden Castle, it was set ablaze by Kaido. The retainers went inside the castle and found Momonosuke as well as his sister and mother. Toki then sent Momonosuke, Kin'emon, Kanjuro, Raizo, and Kikunojo twenty years into the future.