Wano: How One Piece Successfully Depicts Japan
“By the time we leave this country, it’ll be a place where you can eat as much as you want.” — Luffy to Otama
Wano is a country based on Japan. If it’s not obvious enough: samurai, sakura, koi fish, c’mon… 😏 Wano is an isolated country, disconnected from the rest of the world. They’re not affiliated with the world government, and the citizens are prohibited from leaving the country. This makes Wano feel “distant” and “distinct” as Japan is in our world — in a way...
Well… it’s not like Japan sits on top of a waterfall and closes itself off from the rest of the world, no no no. I believe several other aspects of Wano had a connection or might draw inspiration from Japan’s history and culture. This is a story of how Wano adapts some of the most iconic identities of Japan.
1. Language and Letters
Japan has a unique writing system that consists of 3 types of letters: [1] Hiragana (平仮名), Katakana (カタカナ), and Kanji (漢字). I don’t know about you… but as far as I know, only the Japanese language uses three kinds of letters. Even for a country that doesn’t use the alphabet, they use one type of letter. For example, Mandarin uses Hanzi, South Korea uses Hangeul, Russia uses the Russian alphabet, while the rest of the world mostly just uses the Roman alphabet that we are all familiar with (abc’s).
The Japanese language also has a set of rules depending on how the letters are composed. Some of which are rendaku (連濁), dakuten (濁点) and handakuten (半濁点), jukugo (熟語), and many more. The language also has a unique reading system which is derived from Chinese pronunciation called On’yomi and Kun’yomi. For example, This letter alone 上 (ue) can be pronounced differently depending on the other letters that are attached to it: [1] 上手 (jyou-zu) [2] 上がる (a-ga-ru) [3] 上る(nobo-ru) 😂 This unique reading system often makes Japanese sounds like an alien language from a foreigner’s perspective. It feels like only the Japanese could read the letters correctly.
So if you think about it. A set of “letters” that can “only be read” by a “limited group of people”? I wonder if that reminds you of something 🤔 Yes… you guessed it! It’s the poneglyph.
The knowledge of how to read and write the characters on the stones has been passed down in the Kozuki clan for years since the Void century. Nobody in the world currently, aside from Robin understands the letters. The fact that the poneglyphs are using a unique writing system and a unique way to read the letters makes me unable to resist making a connection to the actual Japanese language. And it also originated from Wano? The country based on Japan? I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
2. Mentality
One of my professors who studied Mechatronics in Japan had always shared his stories about how he was amazed by the country. Especially the mentality of its people. Ever heard of Ikigai (生き甲斐)? The concept of “reason for existing”. That originated from Japan. I also have been implementing Kaizen (改善), a way to improve yourself every day one small step at a time. Not only that, there are still many other mentalities that are strongly inherent in Japanese people. For example, they respect punctuality. In Japan, if trains get delayed even if it is only minutes, the station will offer you a train delay certificate, and sometimes the conductor even apologizes.
This behavior proves that they put so much value on time. It’s the opposite of where I’m from in which people TEND to run late on purpose.
Japanese also have this attitude called “Mottainai” (勿体無い) which roughly translates to a sense of regret over waste. It plants a mindset to always “reduce, reuse, and recycle”. You can go to Japan and notice there’s no trash can on the street, but there is zero garbage lying around. Even when they have festivals, they always have these garbage stands and people ALWAYS put their waste there.
Back to my professor… so he saw this contrast of mentality and tried to put it in a simple word for the students to understand. He pictured all of these mentalities to fall under the nuance of having a strong-willed discipline. He called it the samurai mentality. You see where this is going, huh? 😏
The residents of Wano country are the samurais. They live by the code of honor. They have this strong mentality of “do or die” when it comes to fighting to defend their honors. I was amazed when they reached Onigashima and burned down their boats. That shows how strong their resolve is.
I can see the same strong-willed attitude and mentality that the Japanese had, portrayed by these samurais in the form of a burning spirit to fight. Clearly, Oda has emphasized that “honor” and “Japanese” are two things that can’t be separated.
These are the two things that I believe Oda-sensei tries to incorporate into the story of Wano. The isolated Wano country depicts how “distant” and “distinct” Japan as a country is. Japan feels “out of this world” cause they have this unique writing system and strong-willed mentality that is almost non-existent anywhere else.
Hope you enjoy the story.
乾杯 🍻
Your captain,
ferzos
