| Hamato Yoshi | |
|---|---|
| |
| Full name | |
| Powers | Skilled master of Ninjutsu Excellent physical abilities Experienced in hand-to-hand combat and numerous martial arts and karate Leadership skills |
| Creators | Kevin Eastman Peter Laird |
| Publisher | Mirage Studios |
| First appearance | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) |
| Last appearance | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) |
Hamato Yoshi is a central character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and all related media. In all continuities, he was once a great and honourable ninja whose story is always closely intertwined with that of Splinter: he was the owner of a pet rat who becomes Splinter in the original comics, films, The Next Mutation, and the 2003 cartoon series, while Splinter was Hamato Yoshi in the 1987 cartoon series, the Adventures comics, the 2011 IDW comic series, and the 2012 cartoon series.
Movies[]
Yoshi's story, as explained in the first of the four TMNT movies, mirrors that of the comics, although Oroku Nagi is completely removed from the story, and Yoshi's conflict is with Oroku Saki himself. Yoshi and Saki are portrayed as rival members of the same clan who constantly competed against each other, with their competition for Tang Shen's affections being particularly fierce. Instead of fleeing from the murder of a clan member, Tang Shen persuades Yoshi to flee to America to avoid fighting Saki (presumably to the death) for her hand in marriage. Saki vowed vengeance and spent years searching for them. Saki eventually finds and kills Yoshi and his wife in their New York apartment, leaving Yoshi's pet rat Splinter homeless. The actor who played him was uncredited.
In the third Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, the turtles save a child named Yoshi from a burning building in 17th century Japan, Michelangelo getting him out of the building and Leonardo subsequently performing CPR. This Yoshi's relationship with Hamato Yoshi is never fully explained, but based on the past incarnation of another character that the turtles meet on this adventure (a possible British ancestor of Casey Jones, Whit) a direct relationship between this boy and Hamato Yoshi seems implied. If this is indeed the case, then by saving the boy's life, the turtles had also saved their own future, as their origin is inexorably tied to the fate of Hamato Yoshi.
In the 2014 reboot, Hamato Yoshi was written out of the Turtles and Splinter's origin story entirely, although his name is noted as the author of the ninjitsu book Splinter used to teach the turtles martial arts.