For the most part, he is a stereotypical merchant: cynical, unscrupulous, and—especially according to his wife Ipponume—money-grubbing. He has very few qualms about selling weapons to criminals or trying to mislead new customers into uneven bargains, and is usually surly to those he cannot make a profit from.

However, he still holds a genuine passion for swords and swordsmanship, and for many years refused to sell Sandai Kitetsu for fear that its curse would injure or kill the buyers.