ITTORYU

Over the course of his journey, Zoro has been in situations where his techniques have had to adapt for one reason or another. In addition to his primary fighting style, he has several other related fighting styles that form the greater part of his Santoryu fighting abilities. Ittoryu (一刀流 Ittōryū^?, literally meaning "One Sword Style") is one of them.

Ittoryu Attacks

These are the attacks he uses with one sword. As Zoro is left-handed, his Ittoryu techniques have nearly always been executed with his left hand. He usually uses Wado Ichimonji for them but after the timeskip he seems to be proficient in using each of his three swords for his one-sword techniques. He mainly fights with one sword when not fighting seriously or when he is using a specialized cutting technique. However, early in the series (when Sham stole two of his swords and Zoro had to fight him and Buchi with just one), Zoro himself says he is "not that good at one-sword techniques". Over time, he seems to have worked on this weakness and becomes proficient with one. In fact, all his Ittoryu techniques are very powerful finishing techniques.

• Ittoryu Iai: Shishi Sonson (一刀流 ｢居合｣　獅子歌歌 Ittōryū Iai: Shishi Sonson^?, literally meaning "One Sword Style Draw and Resheath Technique: Lion's Song"): Placing the sheathed sword upright and listening to the "breath" of his opponent, the attack rapidly unsheathes, attacks, and sheaths the sword. An interesting note is that Zoro does the technique back-handed as opposed to from the waist with a standard grip on the sword. This was first seen being used to finish off Mr. 1. Zoro uses this technique only when he needs to cut metal like Mr. 1's steel body or Kaku's Tekkai technique. This move was his very first Itto-Ryu attack. This attack is as powerful as Kaku's Rankyaku Roudan.

• Sanjuroku Pound Ho (三十六煩悩（ポンド）鳳 Sanjūroku Pondo Hō^?, kanji meaning "Phoenix of the 36 Earthly Desires"; furigana meaning "Pound Phoenix/Cannon"): This attack uses the air itself to slash the target from a distance. To initiate it, Zoro first holds one of his swords horizontally above the shoulder of his sword arm, and then performs a circular swing that launches the air compressed projectile spiraling towards the target. Zoro introduced this technique as a very powerful Flying Slash Attack. This was first seen being used to finish off Braham in Enel's Survival Game. The attack's name is actually a very heavy pun, it's written out as "Phoenix of the 36 Earthly Desires" in the Manga with a skewed reading attached that makes it "36 Pound Ho" when read out. Ho means both Cannon and Phoenix, however the attached Kanji is for Phoenix, making that the literal translation and the "Cannon" reading a Pun on that, both of which are correct. The "Pound" part is a skewed reading of the Kanji "Bonnou" for Earthly Desires, and it is referring to the Caliber of a Cannon.

• Hiryu: Kaen (飛竜火焔 Hiryū: Kaen^?, literally meaning "Flying Dragon: Blaze"): Using one sword wielded in his left hand with his right hand gripping his left wrist for support (or vice-versa), Zoro jumps high up into the air and slashes his opponent. After slashing them, Zoro's opponent then bursts into flames (in the anime, the color of the fire is blue instead) from where they were slashed. This was first seen being used against Ryuma. The animal or creature, that usually accompanies Zoro in the background when performs powerful techniques, in this technique, is an occidental dragon. The dragon bares an uncanny resemblance to the dragon slayed by Ryuma the King from Oda's earlier work, Monsters. The scene where Zoro slashes Ryuma with this technique also resembles the scene from Monsters, in which Ryuma slays the dragon.