I’ve seen a fair share of people say that Yamato’s Zoan devil fruit is a Kirin and I get that it could fit lore-wise, meaning the death of a ruler and coming of another, but personally I don’t think the design actually fits to what we see in the manga.
Why it’s NOT a Kirin: Being a traditional tattooer going into Japanese art, I’ve seen my fair share of Kirins and Yamato is missing several key features. Most people see just Deviantart depictions of Kirins where they have cat-like paws, but they are not necessarily based on real Japanese Kirins. Chinese Qilin doesn’t often have hooves and I would assume that’s where some of the references come from, but taking that this is strictly a Japanese referenced arc, I would assume Oda would take actual Japanese Kirins as reference and all Kirins that I’ve seen are drawn with strict characteristics, being a deer-like body with hooves and a dragon’s head, with it’s body covered in scales and dragon-like antlers and a horse’s mane.
If you see Yamato’s design in the panel, you can see small hairs coming from her body and no antlers (her horns are inherited from Kaido and in his hybrid form he does have 2 sets of horns, indicating one set is from his Devil Fruit). We do see the design hinting at the sacred fire that some yokais have, but with no color scheme yet, we can’t tell for sure if it’s her actual hair or the fire.
To me, Inari Okami seems the more plausible Zoan devil fruit. It fits the lore and the design to the tee. In her normal form she has white hair, and all her Devil Fruit features indicate this being a type of canine.
This would fit with the common depiction of Inari riding or transforming into a white fox, coming to Japan in a time of famine to bring food to its citizens and often depicted as androgynous male or female.
According to myth, Inari, as a goddess, was said to have come to Japan at the time of its creation amidst a harsh famine that struck the land. “She [Inari] descended from Heaven riding on a white fox, and in her hand she carried sheaves of cereal or grain. Ine, the word now used for rice, is the name for this cereal. What she carried was not rice but some cereal that grows in swamps. According to legend, in the ancient times Japan was water and swamp land.
*Theory by TheStrangeMeursault
