Who were the strongest swordsmen in each era?

One Piece The recent developments have been amazing, and fans are waiting for more (as they are also waiting for the new season to release in April 2026). Even if One Piece promises a bright future, there is also much to be said for the past, as the best swordsmen of all time in the series.

There are many characters who use swords in the franchise, and not all of them are technically swordsmen, although fans usually don't mind who should be worthy of the title. But only one can hold the official title of “World's Strongest Swordsman”. Although we only know the identity of the current holder, there are some good guesses as to who was probably the strongest of them in previous eras. But before that, let's delve more into the eras of One Piece and how the chronology looks like in the series.

Family

8 One Piece Characters Who Wasted All Their Potential

No One Piece character screams lost potential more than these.

The eras of the world in one piece

The world of One Piece is a bit like our world, with an extensive timeline that begins even before the rise of civilizations. Also, just like in the real world, there is more than one calendar: there are two, the Age of the Sea Circle (ASC) and the Age of Heaven (AH), but it is unknown which one is more common. What we do know is that Mont Blanc Noland dates events using the Age of Sea Circle in his book, and Nico Robin has referenced the Age of Heaven. The Age of Sea Circle seems similar to the Gregorian calendar.

The timeline can be broken down like this:

• Before Void Century (-3500s ASC to 500s ASC);

• Void Century (600s ASC to 700s ASC);

• After Void Century/Before Current Century (800s ASC to 1400s ASC);

• Last century before the God Valley Incident (1540s ASC to 16th century ASC);

• Good Valley Incident (1500 ASC);

• Great Pirate Era (16th century ASC to 1538 ASC);

• Luffy's Journey (from 1539 ASC onwards; the story is currently in 1541 ASC).

Notice how the time span gets shorter as we approach the current era, as the most relevant events in the story happened not too long ago. Much of what happened centuries before is just part of a larger lore that does One Piece feels like a real universe, with its own chronology and evolution. Nevertheless, it is important to note that while One Piece offers fans glimpses into the past, with references to events that happened centuries before the main story (such as the era of dinosaurs millions of years ago, or the construction of Alabasta thousands of years ago), this is not to say that the story tries to create a 100% faithful reproduction. It just gives fans a sense that there is a somewhat consistent story to unfold.

Also, in the real world, knowledge from centuries ago is harder to find due to the lack of surviving documentation, so it makes sense that information about ancient times in One Piece would be sparing. If we collect some main events from the recent timeline, these are the ones that matter the most in the story:

Why is the God Valley incident so important?

The God Valley Incident marks a fundamental moment in the story of One Piece. A few years before the event, Figarland Garling, currently one of the Five Elders, stopped in God Valley, an island with abundant natural resources and the hideout of the Davy family, enemies of the World Government. He then offered the island membership status in the world government, but was refused. He also met a local woman who would eventually become the mother of Shamrock and Shanks.

Still, Garling would not give up on the island. He suggested, within the World Government, that God Valley host the next native hunting competition, as the island's name was taken as blasphemous by the World Nobles. Native Hunting Competitions are tournaments where World Nobles compete to see who kills the most native/resident population in a location. Basically, it's a genocidal contest held with the help of the marines.

Who is that character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)

Start

Restart
Back

Results

0

Highest score: 0

—

Who is that character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s) Medium (5.0s) Hard (2.5s) Permadeath (2.5s)Start

RestartBack

Results

0

High score: 0 —

In any case, God Valley was chosen to host the next competition, and at first it was just like any other native hunting competition (which is bad enough already), and also served as a punishment for the Davy family. However, Rocks and Roger came to the island to save people and others followed, forcing Imu, the secret ruler of the government, to interfere – many people, including Rocks, died. The God Valley Incident was heavily censored, and the island was officially removed from maps as if it had never existed. Monkey D. Garp and Monkey D. Dragon, Luffy's grandfather and father (respectively), were there. Although the event was censored from official records, it was a turning point for many characters who were there.

What is the relevance of swordsmen in a play?

image via Toei Animation.

Image via Toei Animation

History of the World i One Piece goes back a long time, but the history of swordsmen is shorter. There is no information on exactly when swordsmen appeared, but they have been around for centuries – given the logic of the real world, they probably appeared thousands of years ago, when humanity learned how to produce swords. Therefore, we only have information on a handful of them, and most swordsmen we know are either from the current era or the Roger era.

What we do know is that there have been swordsmen in Wano Country for centuries, where they are called “samurai”. But swordsmanship isn't just about being able to use a sword: there are qualifications to meet and techniques to master. But people can refer to themselves as swordsmen even though they technically aren't. There are places (dojo) around the world where people can learn the art of swordplay. Well, the whole concept is pretty grounded in real swordsmanship, its ethical and technical behavior and so on. And then the best swordsman can eventually hold the title of World's Strongest Swordsman – which can be achieved by defeating the current holder.

Since we only have information about the most recent eras, we will only consider them. It's possible that Oda will still explore swordsmen from other eras in spin-offs or other media. First, let's determine the best from each era, and then we'll delve more into each swordsman on the list:

Legendary samurai Shimotsuki Ryuma

Ryuma wasn't originally one One Piece character, but Oda re-engaged Monster to turn Ryuma's cannon to One Piece franchise. He lived in Wano centuries before Luffy's journey began and was considered the God of Swords. The title of Strongest Swordsman in the World likely hasn't even existed yet, so that's probably the closest title to it.

Roger and Rayleigh in the age of pirates

Roger and Rayleigh are both considered extremely skilled in swordplay. Since there is no official information on who held the title of Strongest Swordsman before Mihawk, fans often believe that one of them, or both at different times, have held the title. Roger is the legendary pirate known as the Pirate King, and Rayleigh was his right hand man.

Although Roger is deceased (having been executed), Rayleigh is still alive, living in Sabaody, and is considered a legendary pirate. He became friends of sorts with Luffy and taught him how to master Haki, mentoring him during the two year time jump between the Marineford Arc and the New World Saga.

Mihawk will lose the title

Dracule Mihawk is the current holder of the Strongest Swordsman title, but fans tend to consider Shanks to be stronger than him, especially due to Haki. Mihawk is also a pirate, known as Marine Hunter, and he has a long rivalry with Shanks. In any case, Roronoa Zoro sees Mihawk as his ultimate rival, and it is likely that Zoro will eventually claim the title of Strongest Swordsman in the World.

One Piece

Release date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Ma Shihi Endo, Toshihiro Ma Shihi Endo, Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

Author

Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda

• 

  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

• 

  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)