Chapters · Four Emperors (Yonko) › Wano Country

Chapter 960: Introducing Kozuki Oden

Arc: Wano Country · Saga: Four Emperors (Yonko) · Released: 2019-10-18

Summary

A leap into Wano’s past opens with lush narration of “a land where life was still abundant.” Three men flee a “moving mountain,” arriving at Miss Tsuru’s teahouse at the cape having caught a fabled white boar worth a platinum coin — but a young capital thief, Kin’emon, overhears and steals the piglet to sell to the Kurokoma yakuza boss. Meanwhile, at the shogun’s palace, Shogun Kozuki Sukiyaki hears a litany of his son Oden’s lifelong havoc: superhuman feats since infancy, arson and assault, a river diverted through the capital, and the “Harem War.” We then meet Oden’s contemporaries in their youth — the swindler-orphan Denjiro, yakuza boss Hyogoro the Flower — before Oden himself finally appears on-page, boiling and devouring a pot of oden over a stranger’s funeral pyre, then seducing the capital’s women with his “legendary Oden speeches.” The captured piglet proves to be the offspring of the Mountain God: the giant white boar charges into the Flower Capital in a rampage, and Oden steps forward demanding, “Give that boar to me!!”

New reveals

• Kozuki Oden appears on-page for the first time (p.
• Kozuki Sukiyaki appears on-page for the first time (p.
• Oden’s youth (narrated to Sukiyaki, pp. 7–9): threw his wet nurse before age 1; caught two hares at 2; obliterated a bear with a hurled boulder at 4; on the yakuza blacklist by 9; arrested for assault and burned down a gambling den at 10; rose to chief stonemason in prison; at 14 carved a river through the capital to relieve a drought (causing floods); waged the “Harem War” at 15–18, abducting women and battling their husbands/fathers — even drawing in the Hyogoro family.
• Oden longs to break Wano’s closed-border law and sail to the open sea — but “has no talent for sailing” (p. 7).
• Pre-retainer youths: Kin’emon = “thug from the capital” (pickpocket/thief, known to Otsuru since childhood); Denjiro = “orphan of the capital” (pot-swapping swindler); Hyogoro = yakuza “Hyogoro the Flower” in his prime; Otsuru = teahouse waitress at the cape.
• The Mountain God: a legendary white boar “the size of a mountain” said to have razed a village centuries ago. The captured piglet is its offspring; the adult charges the capital for it (pp. 16–17). White boars are revered as “agents of the gods.”

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Since Ch. 817 Oden has been referenced only in the past tense (graves, legend, “the man Kaido killed 20 years ago”). This chapter finally shows him on-page (in flashback), beginning his full backstory — the payoff readers have anticipated since the Zou arc.

Mentions / appearances

• Characters: Kozuki Oden (first appearance, flashback youth), Kozuki Sukiyaki (first appearance), Kin’emon (flashback youth), Denjiro (first appearance, flashback youth), Hyogoro (flashback prime), Otsuru (flashback youth), Mountain God (first appearance), Grandpa Katsuzo (deceased, named only — the funeral Oden disrupts, p. 12).
• Groups / families: Kozuki, Akazaya Nine (the future Red Scabbards — Kin’emon, Denjiro shown pre-retainer; not yet assembled), the Kurokoma family .
• Locations: Wano Country, Flower Capital (the cape teahouse and crematory).

Notable panels

• Page 1 — Title page: “Chapter 960: Introducing Kozuki Oden.” Cover story: Gang Bege’s Oh My Family Vol. 10: “On the Search!! Find Lola!!” — Bege, Chiffon, and Pudding stride through a town, a twin-sisters thought-bubble overhead. (Defer to cover-tracker.)
• Page 2 — Establishing splash of old Wano: forests, river, “crystal blue sea,” koi — “This is a story of Wano…”
• Page 6 — Caption reveal: “Thug from the capital — Kin’emon” (young Kin’emon).
• Page 7 — Caption reveal: “Shogun of Wano — Kozuki Sukiyaki (Oden’s father)”; the litany of Oden’s youth begins.
• Page 10 — Caption reveal: “Yakuza of the capital — Hyogoro the Flower” (prime Hyogoro).
• Page 11 — Caption reveal: “Orphan of the capital — Denjiro” (young swindler).
• Page 13 — Caption reveal: “Wano shogun’s heir — Kozuki Oden” — Oden’s first on-page appearance, gorging on oden boiled over a funeral pyre.
• Pages 16–17 — The Mountain God (giant white boar) rampages through the Flower Capital; Oden steps in: “Give that boar to me!!” “K-Kozuki Oden?!!” (Visually significant — flag for mirror.)

Open questions raised

• Will Oden tame or fell the Mountain God — and is this how he first earns the capital’s awe?
• How does this delinquent youth become the revered daimyo of Kuri and a legendary pirate?
• Who are the Kurokoma family, and how deep do Wano’s yakuza politics run in Oden’s era?