ONE PIECE: the real places
Eiichiro Oda is from Kumamoto, and after the earthquakes of April 2016 the prefecture and the author put the Straw Hat crew across the places the shaking hit hardest. Ten bronze statues in nine municipalities: Luffy outside the prefectural offices, and the other nine spread from the Aso caldera to the Ariake coast, each in a town that had to rebuild. They are not a marketing trail. The prefecture's own pages say what they are for, and the route they make is a tour of the recovery, which is why a visit takes two days and a rental car rather than an afternoon. This is also the one pilgrimage on this site where the thing you came to see is unambiguously there, put up for you to stand in front of.
10 places
Statue
Brook statue, Fureai plaza, Mifune
The musician, in a town best known for dinosaurs: Mifune's fossil beds gave Japan some of its first confirmed dinosaur finds, and the town leans on that. A skeleton in a town of skeletons is the kind of placement this project keeps making on purpose.
- Address
- 熊本県上益城郡御船町大字辺田見100（ふれあい広場内）
- Getting there
- By car, about 25 min from Kumamoto station
An open plaza with parking, about twenty-five minutes by car from Kumamoto station, and the town's dinosaur museum is the other reason to stop.
On the map · Official page · read on September 25, 2026
Statue · Rules of its own
Chopper statue, Kumamoto zoological and botanical gardens
The ship's doctor, who is also a reindeer, placed at the city's zoological and botanical gardens — the one statue of the ten whose siting is a joke the whole family gets. The gardens took heavy damage in the 2016 earthquake and reopened in stages, which is why this is where Chopper went.
- Address
- 熊本県熊本市東区健軍5丁目14-2
- Getting there
- Kumamoto city tram, Doubutsuen-iriguchi, then a short walk
Inside the municipal gardens, so the gardens' own opening hours and admission apply rather than a roadside stop.
Rules of its own. This is a paid attraction with animals in it, not a public square. Check the gardens' hours before travelling, and treat the statue as one stop inside a visit rather than a reason to hurry through.
On the map · Official page · read on September 25, 2026
Statue
Franky statue, Takamori station
The shipwright, on the grass at Takamori station, the terminus of the Minami Aso railway — a line that was severed by the earthquake and rebuilt in sections, which is about as on the nose as a statue of a shipwright gets.
- Address
- 熊本県阿蘇郡高森町高森1537-2（高森駅前）
- Getting there
- Minami Aso railway, Takamori, at the station
At the terminus of the Minami Aso railway, so it can be reached by train, and the line itself is the reason to do it that way.
On the map · Official page · read on September 25, 2026
Statue
Jinbe statue, Sumiyoshi coast park, Uto
The fish-man helmsman, on the Ariake coast beside the Nagabuta Kaishoro — a farm road that runs straight out into the sea on a line of power poles, and is swallowed by the tide twice a day. A character from the sea, at the one place in Kumamoto where the road belongs to the sea half the time.
- Address
- 熊本県宇土市住吉町3162-1（住吉海岸公園・長部田海床路）
- Getting there
- JR Misumi line, Akasaki, then about 10 min on foot
A coastal park about ten minutes on foot from Akasaki on the JR Misumi line, and the tide decides what the sea road looks like when you arrive.
Public place. The sea road is a working road that floods. Check the tide before walking out on it, and do not go out onto it as the water comes in.
On the map · Official page · read on September 25, 2026
Statue
Luffy statue, Kumamoto prefectural promenade
The first of the ten, and the one the others were placed around: Luffy stands on the promenade of ginkgo trees that runs from the prefectural offices' main gate. The prefecture describes the whole set as a driving force for recovery after the 2016 earthquake, made with Kumamoto's own Eiichiro Oda, and this is where that project is announced rather than hidden in a park.
- Address
- 熊本県熊本市中央区水前寺6丁目18-1（県庁プロムナード内）
- Getting there
- Kumamoto city tram, Suizenji-koen, then about 10 min on foot
Open ground in front of a working government building, so it can be seen at any hour, and the ginkgo avenue is the reason locals come in late November.
On the map · Official page · read on September 25, 2026
Statue
Nami statue, Moe no Sato, Nishihara
The navigator, at the roadside hall on the Tawarayama slope — a stop with a view over the plain and a farm shop, on the road the 2016 earthquake broke and the village spent years reopening. Getting here is the point: the route itself is the repair.
- Address
- 熊本県阿蘇郡西原村小森2115-3（俵山交流館 萌の里内）
- Getting there
- By car, on the Tawarayama road towards Aso
A roadside facility with parking and a farm shop, on the way up to Aso by car rather than by train.
On the map · Official page · read on September 25, 2026
Statue · Rules of its own
Robin statue, Kumamoto earthquake museum KIOKU
The archaeologist, in front of the preserved ruins of the Tokai University campus at Minami Aso — buildings left standing as the 2016 earthquake left them, with the fault line visible in the ground, now the Kumamoto earthquake museum. Of the ten, this is the placement that says what the project is for, and a character who reads ruins for a living is the one who belongs here.
- Address
- 熊本県阿蘇郡南阿蘇村大字河陽（東海大学阿蘇校舎内）
- Getting there
- By car, in the Minami Aso valley
Inside the grounds of the earthquake museum, reached by car in the Minami Aso valley.
Rules of its own. This is a disaster memorial, not a photo stop. Students died on this campus. Read the site as it asks to be read, keep to the marked ground, and take the statue in that order — the museum first, the character second.
On the map · Official page · read on September 25, 2026
Statue
Sanji statue, Mina Terrace, Mashiki
The cook, at the community facility of Mashiki — the town that took the twin shocks of April 2016 at their worst, and the place where this whole project is least decorative. The statue stands where the town rebuilt its gathering ground.
- Address
- 熊本県上益城郡益城町木山236（ミナテラス内）
- Getting there
- By car from Kumamoto airport, about 15 min
A town facility with parking, roughly a quarter of an hour by car from Kumamoto airport, which makes it easy to fit around a flight.
On the map · Official page · read on September 25, 2026
Statue
Usopp statue, Aso station
The liar, in the rotary in front of Aso station, under the caldera rim. The Hohi line through here was cut by the 2016 earthquake and took five years to run again end to end, so a statue on this platform side is a statement about the line as much as about the town.
- Address
- 熊本県阿蘇市黒川1444-2
- Getting there
- JR Hohi line, Aso, in front of the station
In the station forecourt: the only one of the ten you reach without a car, if you take the JR Hohi line.
On the map · Official page · read on September 25, 2026
Statue
Zoro statue, Ozu central park
The swordsman in a town park beside the kendo hall, which is the sort of placement that reads as a decision rather than as available space. Ozu sits on the road between Kumamoto city and Aso, so this is the natural first stop of a drive up to the caldera statues.
- Address
- 熊本県菊池郡大津町大字大津1156-3（大津中央公園）
- Getting there
- JR Hohi line, Higo-Ozu, about 10 min on foot
A town park with parking, ten minutes on foot from Higo-Ozu station on the JR Hohi line, open ground at any hour.
On the map · Official page · read on September 25, 2026
How this list is made
A place is listed when the work, its publisher or the town's own tourism page names it, and the page it was read on is linked with the date it was read. Positions come from OpenStreetMap or from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, never from Google.
We never show a frame of a work beside a photograph of a place. The scene is described in words instead, which is also the version a screen reader and three languages can use. How we check and rank, in full.