Yakuza cut their left pinkie finger. Shanks lost his left arm. Traditionally, like from medieval times, the finger-cutting is meant to cripple your swordsmanship, as the pinky finger grips the handle the most tightly. We know Shanks is a swordsman and lost at least some level of ability in this skill because of Mihawk refusing to duel, and from how he uses it in flashbacks, his left arm was his dominant arm. And actually, even earlier than the yakuza, finger-cutting comes from medieval japanese gamblers. Losing a finger was seen as a way to resolve a bet if you didn't have another way to pay. This really makes that "I bet it on the next generation." line come across a different way to me. It's not the focus of this and ive posted it before, but in my opinion, Shanks losing his arm was an intentional act to cement his influence over Luffy, because Shanks could see what Luffy's future might hold.
The marines don't call him "captain" by the way, they call him "ogashira/大頭", or "big boss". like he's the head of a criminal organization. His crew just uses "kashira/頭", a more informal "boss". the yakuza organization structure IRL places the "wakagashira"/"young boss" right under the oyabun/kumicho, so shanks' title is alluding to the yakuza without being one of their real titles. rather than the group leader, hes the head of the family. same idea, different phrasing.
we also have the father/son cups sake ritual. the yakuza use the sakazuki cups to cement organization structure and loyalty. the grand fleet start calling Luffy "ogashira" after it, even though they don't do the "real" exchange of cups. Kyoshiro's family in Wano use it to swear loyalty, so it even has explicit ties to the yakuza within the world of One Piece. I imagine Shanks and his crew did the same father/son cups ritual as any other yakuza family when forming the red hair pirates, considering their deferment to his rank and level of respect. Also, Shanks is from the West blue, where the best sake comes from, and he's always got a supply. Coincidentally, the west blue is overrun by underworld mafia figures under the Five Families of the West, and any importing of booze probably goes through them, so Shanks probably has ties to and influence with the Underworld. How far does it actually go? Well, we know the Underworld business goes all the way to the top of the government. We know Shanks can just walk into the holy land and discuss whatever he wants with the 5 Elders. We know the underworld is acting as a go-between for the WG, the yonko, and other weapons dealers and criminals across the world. Everyone called Doflamingo the most influential man in the Underworld, but he was just one broker. After Dressrosa we find out that the underworld is much bigger than just one country's exports, and see guys like Giberson the Hider the warehouse kingpin, "god of fortune" Du Feld, "shipping king" Umit, Big News Morgans, etc. But even these guys most people dont know about specialize. The organization structure has to lead up to something, right? Who's pulling the strings?
Akagami (red hair) is written like this "赤髪" but if you say akagami and write it like this "垢神" it means something like "dirty god" or like "god of filth". akagami no shankusu. What if Red Haired Shanks is also Shanks the Dirty God, the man at the top of the underworld?
i started looking for more puns after this and figured Oda likes doing stuff with bounties. shanks is 4,048,900,000. its got 489 (shi-ya-ku) in it and this led me in some wild directions. first off 師役(shiyaku) could mean "playing the role of teacher/master", like the example wiki gives is saying something like "suzumiya haruhi-yaku, aya hirano." so, playing the role of teacher, shanks. (or playing the role of Death, ooh spooky) then theres a bunch of gambling references! yaku means your hand in mahjong, for one. but then the other one
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oicho-Kabu , a japanese gambling card game literally called "89". turns out its the origin of the word yakuza.
so i wanted to see if there were any notable connections between the syllable "shi" and the yakuza and got
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimizu_Jirocho
- most famous yakuza in history
- adopted
- life has no recorded notable incidents between the death of his father and becoming a young adult
- became a gambler and criminal and started building a private navy
- played the revolutionary army and the government against each other
- swordsman
- folk hero/robin hood figure in japan
- famously made sure people were buried properly after a war and defied the government in doing so
- was known to be able to settle major conflicts without casualties
"The pistol is cold. The pistol is a mechanism. There is no personification in it, and the sword is an extension of the human hand, human flesh, and I can convey the entire depth of hatred towards the enemy when the blade of my sword pierces his body, plunging the hand-sword into the body of the enemy. Then there is no greater pleasure to say: "Shinde moraimasu", that is, "I ask you to die."
Shimizu Jirocho
"its dangerous to point guns."
Shanks
