Taketo Nazawa is the village headman of Nazawaka City.[1] He is the first son of Matsuba Nazawa, the previous headman, and the older brother of Umeno Nazawa.
Appearance[]
Taketo is described by Roronoa Zoro as a "nervous-looking" man with glasses.
Personality[]
Taketo is considered a very good headman, and is adored by the residents of Nazawaka City. Umeno Nazawa considers him brilliant.[1]
However, he appears not to worry about the townsfolk too much; Zoro notes that he speaks as if problems facing the town were someone else's issue to deal with. Additionally, he shows no problem with offering bribes, paying off the nearby Marine outpost. He looks down on the vigilante corps, and referred to Zoro as a "thug" when they get into an argument.
Additionally, Umeno believes Taketo to be particularly ruthless, to the point of potentially killing his father.
Relationships[]
Matsuba Nazawa[]
Taketo strongly opposed his father's belief of preserving tradition, to the point where Umeno believes he could have killed him over it.
Umeno Nazawa[]
Taketo seems to think poorly of his brother, despite the latter's great respect for him. He intentionally pushes him out of politics to monopolize the headman's power for himself; while Umeno doesn't realize this, Zoro considers it very obvious to everyone else in the town.
Roronoa Zoro[]
Taketo was initially skeptical of Zoro, but after seeing his abilities and preventing a fire at the mansion, he came to respect the young swordsman's strength, sometimes even taking him on as his personal bodyguard. However, despite the respect he developed for Zoro's strength, he continues to generally look down on him; when Zoro stumbled onto the Seven-Colored Paper that Taketo wanted to keep secret, he had no issue with angrily calling the swordsman a "hired thug".
Abilities and Powers[]
As village headman, Taketo has jurisdiction over Nazawaka City.
He appears to be fairly intelligent, and was apparently able to significantly improve Nazawaka City during his governance.[1]
Swordsmanship[]
Taketo has practiced kendo since he was a child, though he appears to have abandoned it.
History[]
Past[]
During Umeno's childhood, Nazawaka City's embankment was getting dangerously close to collapsing. Village headman Matsuba Nazawa took charge of reconstructing it, and Taketo helped in the project, calculating the size and angles of the stones that needed to be placed. The project was eventually completed seven years ago.[1]
About four years ago, Nazawaka City's paper manufacturing workshop burned down overnight, while village headman Matsuba Nazawa was inside. He died in the fire, and Taketo took over as the next headman. Due to his reputed brilliance, chaos during the transition was kept to a minimum.
In truth, however, Umeno Nazawa believes that Taketo had been the one to orchestrate the fire, and had stolen the development documents for Seven-Colored Paper and lured his father to the workshop in advance. With the workshop burned down, he would have used a smaller version of the paper manufacturing equipment to create more of the Seven-Colored Paper and sell it outside the country, with the help of the vigilante corps.[1]
One Piece novel ZORO[]
Umeno brought Zoro to the Nazawa Family's estate and introduced him to Taketo, recommending that he be recruited to the vigilante corps. While Taketo was skeptical, he allowed Zoro to challenge a powerful member of the corps; when Zoro quickly defeated him, he recruited the young man into the corps.
Two weeks later, someone snuck into the estate and set fire to the gate. When Zoro was the only guard to notice him escaping through the back gate, Taketo grew fond of him, and gave him a private room.
Thirty days after Zoro was recruited to the vigilante corps, Taketo visited a nearby Marine base for an audit, bringing the new recruit as his bodyguard. That night, he ran into Zoro in the main house, who had found an odd piece of paper; however, considering Zoro simply a hired hand, he just sent him away. As he left, Zoro pointed out the callouses on Taketo's hand from kendo, annoying the headman.
Trivia[]
- The take (タケ?) in Taketo's name means "bamboo". When paired with Matsuba ("pine") and Umeno ("plum"), they form the shōchikubai (Pine-Bamboo-Plum), three symbols of the Japanese New Year.
- In the shōchikubai, bamboo represents longevity.
- Coincidentally, shōchikubai sounds similar to shichibukai, the Japanese term for the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
References[]
[]
East Blue Inhabitants | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||
| |||||||||