Norisuke Higashikata I

Norisuke Higashikata (東方 憲助) is a minor character in Steel Ball Run.

Norisuke is a mysterious Japanese competitor in the Steel Ball Run race.

He accumulates significance in JoJolion when he is revealed to have established the success of the Higashikata bloodline, founding the Higashikata Fruit Company.

Appearance
Norisuke is a mature man of average to above-average height and medium build. He wears small, dark spectacles, a short beard, and very short, sparse hair; with his head covered in many small patches.

Norisuke has two navels (although his ancestors only bore one).

Personality
Despite his old age, Norisuke has shown to be rather perceptive, deducing Hot Pants' true gender from the latter's disgust at touching his navel.

History
It is known from Tsurugi Higashikata's explanation of the Higashikata family's superstitious beliefs of warding away "demons of sickness" that Norisuke, being the firstborn son of his family, was raised as a girl until he turned twelve.

Steel Ball Run
Norisuke placed third during the third Stage of the Steel Ball Run race and apparently finished second overall, according to his great grandson in JoJolion. In the aftermath of the race, he is seen on board the ship that Johnny Joestar boards, and greets him with a salute. A younger Japanese woman is seen standing beside him; it could be inferred that she is one of his daughters.

In the aftermath of the race, he uses its prize money to start a successful business importing foreign fruit - a business his descendants continue to maintain well into 2011.

Trivia

 * He shares his hometown of Sendai, Japan with Hirohiko Araki, the author of the manga.