In light of the recent reveal of Zoro being identical to Shimotsuki Ushimaru, I’ve decided to make a post, sketching out Zoro’s backstory in regards to the canonical timeline, manga and sbs facts, under the assumption that Zoro is Ushimaru’s son.
Some disclaimers before we begin:
- The notion of Zoro challenging dojos is an anime only addition, and is NOT CANON. In the manga, Zoro’s backstory starts off with him laying on the ground, after being defeated by Kuina;
- This sequence of events is based on the fact that Zoro is born in the East Blue, as revealed in an sbs:
To start of the timeline, Shimotsuki Kozaburo founded the Shimotsuki Village (where Zoro grew up) 55 years ago, after illegally escaping Wano. He is the father of Zoro’s teacher, Shimotsuki Koushiro, and grandfather of Kuina. The important conclusion here, is that Kuina is also a Shimotsuki.
I’d also like to clarify that the scene where Zoro “blushes” when Kuina talks about her chest, is anime only as well. I mean, she talks about her chest maturing in the manga as well, but Zoro doesn’t blush.
The next thing to note is the location of Shimotsuki Village. It can be assumed to be near Goa Kingdom(where Luffy grew up). This can be concluded from a scene in the post war arc, where we see Dragon rendezvousing with the Revolutionary Army in Shimotsuki Village after saving Sabo in Goa. The important take away from here, is that Foosha Village is part of the Goa Kingdom.
This is relevant due to an extremely important SBS. In this SBS, we see Oda addressing an uncanny resemblance between a carpenter who was fixing the door of Makino’s bar, and Franky’s boss in Wano.
It is revealed that they are brothers, and the one in Foosha Village left Wano illegally a few DECADES ago.
And of course there’s the most important line, “One of the descendants of someone on that ship is a person everyone is familiar with…”
To me it seems like this line refers to Zoro’s mother, back when she was pregnant. For Zoro to be Ushimaru’s son, and be born in the East Blue, there is no other possible way for the story to meet both criteria. This scenario actually makes sense, given the sentence “one of the descendants of someone on that ship”. A synonym for descendent is offspring, so it could easily be referring to his mother.
Now here’s where the question arises, what was Zoro’s mother doing on that ship? To answer, I’ll give you a brief summary of Wano’s timeline.
Before that, you should know that Zoro’s supposed father, Shimotsuki Ushimaru, was the daimyo of Ringo.
28 years ago, Orochi took control of Wano. 25 years ago, Oden returned from his voyage. And 20 years ago, Oden dies.
Since Zoro was born 21 years ago, it’s safe to assume his mother left Wano 21-23 years back.
During that time period, Oden had been dancing. And interestingly, 23 years ago, Kaido fought Moria in Ringo, and Ryuma’s grave was robbed.
With Oden not doing anything to help the situation as far as the citizens knew, and the recent battle in their district, Ushimaru must’ve decided that residing in Wano was no longer safe, and sent his wife aboard the illegal escapee ship.
Considering the carpenter’s residence in Foosha Village, I think it’s safe to assume that the ship stopped by a nearby location, aka Shimotsuki Village, where Zoro’s mother got off, and went to her brother in law(aka Koushiro)’s dojo for protection.
