Toyama Tsujigiro

Toyama Tsujigiro is a Wano Country government official who lives in the Flower Capital. He is also a serial killer who attacked strangers at night.

Appearance

Tsujigiro is an average-sized man with thick eyebrows and black hair tied in a topknot. He wears a dark blue kimono, light blue hakama and a light blue vest.

Personality

Tsujigiro is a cruel individual who murdered random people to sate his bloodlust. He is cunning and remorseless enough to frame an innocent man as the perpetrator and sentence him to seppuku. He seems to hold an interest in high-quality swords like the Meito Shusui, as he was even drooling slightly while holding the sword in his possession. Tsujigiro was perceptive enough to acknowledge that Zoro could not be the thief of Shusui due to his young age, and instead believing him to have taken it from the real thief.

Abilities and Powers

As a Magistrate, he commands a large number of samurai and has jurisdiction over the Flower Capital.

Stealth

Tsujigiro was very stealthy as he is secretly an infamous street slasher who has evaded capture for a long time.

Swordsmanship

He has some skill with a sword as he killed several people with one. In the anime, he is seen practicing his swordsmanship on a straw dummy and cutting it cleanly in half.

History

Past

At some point, Tsujigiro became a street slasher who murdered many people at night. He had claimed three victims in a month when the ronin Zorojuro was caught as the perpetrator.

Wano Country Saga

Wano Country Arc

Tsujigiro convicted Zorojuro of being the street slasher sentenced him to commit seppuku. While he was overseeing the sentence, he examined the sword Shusui which he had extracted from the convict. However, he was cut by Zoro using the seppuku knife after the latter deduced him as the true culprit. Zoro subsequently became a wanted criminal all across the Wano Country for the crime of attacking Tsujigiro.

Anime and Manga Differences

The anime expands upon the sequence of events leading to Zoro’s conviction. Tsujigiro is shown killing a man at night before running into Zoro, who decides to confront him. However, a crowd of people soon rushes to the street, which allows Tsujigiro to flee the scene while Zoro is mistaken for the culprit. The next day, Tsujigiro is seen practicing his swordsmanship against a straw dummy before Zoro is brought in. Tsujigiro also explains his philosophy that swords become stronger by absorbing human blood.

Translation and Dub Issues

In the original Japanese version, Zoro’s crime of attacking Tsujigiro is referred to as o-bugyō-giri (お奉行斬り) or daikan-giri (代官斬り). In some translations, Zoro is said to have “killed the magistrate”, implying Tsujigiro is dead. However, in the Viz translation, Zoro is only called “magistrate slasher”.

Trivia

• Magistrates (bugyō) were samurai officials in feudal Japan.
• His crimes are referred to as tsujigiri, which is a Japanese term for a practice where a samurai tests the effectiveness of a sword by using it against human opponents. The added scenes in the anime tie in with the notion that Tsujigiro wanted to improve his sword’s effectiveness.
• His family name may come from Tōyama Kagemoto, a magistrate who lived during the Edo period of Japan. The name “Tsujigiro” seems to be a play on tsujigiri.

References