Wano Theory: Was It One of the Twenty Kingdoms?

In Chapter 1189, a sword named “Muramasa” was revealed among the legendary weapons surrounding the Empty Throne at Pangea Castle — and it’s the only weapon with a purely Japanese name. If this detail is the clue it appears to be, it rewrites everything we thought we knew about Wano’s origins: the isolationist samurai nation may have once stood alongside the world’s kings as a founding member of the alliance that became the World Government, making it — at least in its earliest form — an enemy of Joy Boy himself.

The Theory

The stakes here are enormous. If Wano was among the Twenty Kingdoms 800 years ago, then the nation’s entire mythology — its isolationism, its Poneglyphs, its samurai code — has to be reread through a lens of guilt, betrayal, and covert resistance. The Kozuki clan didn’t preserve history out of loyalty to an ancient tradition; they preserved it as an act of internal rebellion against the very alliance their nation had joined. This theory positions Wano not as an innocent bystander to the Void Century, but as a nation with blood on its hands — and one family quietly trying to atone for it.

Evidence from the Manga

1. Chapter 1189: The sword “Muramasa” is named among the legendary weapons Im has summoned from around the Empty Throne. Crucially, it is the only weapon listed with a purely Japanese name — no Western phonetic gloss accompanies it. Every other weapon (Tōfū, Bōfū, Nemesis, Gram, Longinus, Stigma, Fragarach, etc.) carries a recognizable Western or mythological name. “Muramasa” stands alone. This linguistic isolation strongly implies the weapon originates from Wano — meaning Wano’s king was one of the Twenty who pledged the Empty Throne.
2. Chapter 1084: The mechanics of the Empty Throne oath are established: twenty kings drove their weapons into the ground as a vow that no single ruler would dominate the world. Nefertari Lily of Alabasta refused to relocate to Mary Geoise, leaving only 19 weapons around the throne. If “Muramasa” is the 19th weapon (with Im’s own weapon being the 20th), then the Wano sovereign was the one who made that pledge — and the Kozuki clan eventually inherited the consequences of it.
3. Chapter 967: Kozuki Oden wrote in his logbook: “Wano Country was once connected to the world.” This line has long been treated as a vague historical reference, but in light of the Muramasa revelation, it reads far more specifically — Wano was once a participant in the international coalition of kingdoms. Oden wasn’t being poetic; he was recording a suppressed political fact.
4. Chapters 1052–1055: Saint Inzabaron V. Nasu-juro, one of the Five Elders and the highest-ranking Celestial Dragons, appears in unmistakably Japanese dress — the only Celestial Dragon to do so. His name “Nasu-juro” contains kanji, and he alone among the Five Elders possesses specific knowledge of how Wano’s defensive walls can be broken to “open” the country, tying the Inzabaron family directly to Wano’s ancient governance.
5. Chapter 722: The Dressrosa parallel provides the structural template for this theory. When the Donquixote Family relocated to Mary Geoise and became Celestial Dragons, a new ruling family — the Riku Family — was chosen to govern Dressrosa. This pattern, applied to Wano, suggests: the Inzabaron Family relocated to Mary Geoise → the Kozuki Family was selected as the new ruling clan → the Kozuki Shogunate then closed Wano’s borders.
6. Chapter 955 & Chapter 912: The sword Enma, forged by Shimotsuki Kozaburo, is established as a “cursed blade” that forcibly drains its wielder’s Haki. If Muramasa shares a similar special property, its forging lineage becomes a key question — potentially linking it to the Shimotsuki family line, and by extension to Zoro himself through distant bloodline connections.

📌 Key Evidence: “Muramasa” is the sole Japanese-named weapon among Im’s arsenal in Chapter 1189 — no other weapon name lacks a Western phonetic gloss. Combined with Saint Inzabaron V. Nasu-juro being the only kimono-wearing Celestial Dragon with direct knowledge of Wano’s defensive wall mechanism, the evidence converges on a single conclusion: the Inzabaron family were Wano’s original royal house before relocating to Mary Geoise.

📌 Key Evidence: Kozuki Oden’s logbook entry — “Wano Country was once connected to the world” (Chapter 967) — recontextualizes entirely as a historical record of Wano’s membership in the Twenty Kingdoms coalition, not merely a lament about isolation.

Our Analysis

What makes this theory particularly compelling is not just the linguistic clue of “Muramasa” — it’s the way it resolves one of One Piece’s most persistent contradictions. The Kozuki Family built the Poneglyphs, preserved the history of the Void Century, and protected the road to Laugh Tale across centuries. And yet, for a family so deeply aligned with Joy Boy’s legacy, they have always existed in conspicuous political silence about their own nation’s ancient past. This theory explains that silence: the Kozuki clan couldn’t openly declare their allegiance to Joy Boy because Wano, under its previous rulers, had been on the other side. The Poneglyphs weren’t a gift freely given — they were an act of covert penance, smuggled into history under the nose of the World Government that Wano helped create.

The theory also reframes the character of the first Kozuki Shogun in a remarkable way. The source material proposes that this founder — potentially named “Kozuki Momotaro,” a name Oda foreshadowed through Momonosuke’s very naming in Chapter 986 — was simultaneously a master swordsmith operating under the name “Tenguyama Kitetsu.” This would make the Kitetsu lineage of cursed blades a product of the first Shogun’s forge, which adds a staggering layer of meaning to Zoro’s entire journey. If Zoro is destined to wield a blade from that lineage, and if the first Shogun secretly served Joy Boy’s cause, then Zoro’s swordsmanship is literally carrying forward the will of Wano’s founding rebel.

The one significant counter-argument is the name “Inzabaron” itself — it sounds deeply un-Japanese, which could argue against a Wano origin. However, the theory accounts for this elegantly: much like how the Japanese Imperial family has no surname, the Wano royal line may have historically been nameless, and adopted the Westernized “Inzabaron” designation only upon becoming Celestial Dragons — paralleling how many emigrant families adopt new names upon entering a new society. The “Izen” component may derive from the kanji for “hermit/sage” (仙), and “Baron” meaning “king” in certain Western contexts, giving us something like “Sage-King” as the hidden meaning of the family’s true title. Oda’s wordplay operates at exactly this level of density.

Theory Credibility Rating

The convergence of four independent data points — the Japanese-exclusive name “Muramasa,” Saint Inzabaron’s kimono and Wano-specific knowledge, Oden’s logbook entry, and the structural parallel with Dressrosa’s Donquixote–Riku succession — gives this theory an unusually strong evidentiary foundation, held back only by the one remaining open question of who actually forged the Muramasa blade and what special ability it carries.

Source: https://onepiece-latestlab.com/wanokuni-is-a-country-of-world-government/