Splinter

Yoshi Hamato (a.k.a. Splinter, Sensei, Tou-san)

Splinter, formerly known as Hamato Yoshi, is a mutated rat human hybrid and an expert in Ninjutsu. He is the father of the turtles.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Physical Appearance

Splinter appears as an older rat that stands upright like a man. His body is covered with a dense, fluffy brown fur that is beginning to grey at the edges, and around his snout. He regularly combs and styles the fur around his face the same way he would with human hair. The fur stops around his hands and feet, leaving bare skin with long, boney, clawed fingers and toes. He also has a long tail which is completely prehensile.

Human Form

When Yoshi was still human he was an average looking Japanese man with dark brown eyes and black hair he kept cut in a bob. He is still able to have an aged version of this form when he uses a Cloaking Brooch.

Apparel & Accessories

Splinter is a very traditional man and is most comfortable wearing a house kimono and a haori around the home. He no longer where's shoes of any kind due to the shape of his feet.

Specialized Equipment

Due to an injury to his knee which left it weak and sore, Splinter walks with a cane. Secretly, this cane is actually a Shikomizue; a blade hidden inside the cane. It is his Yokai Weapon.

Special Abilities

After mutating, Splinter gain quiet a few interesting new traits, including a heightened hearing and sense of smell. He can pick up on even the faintest scents. His jaw also became much stronger, his bite alone capable of breaking through wood. The mutation also enhanced him physically, making him stronger and a faster healer.
Splinter is a long time practitioner of Godai, his element being that of Void. It's represented by spirit, thought, and creativity. His practice with Yokai magic allows him a deep connection with the spirit realm. With enough meditation he can see visions of past, present, and future events, as well as connect with people also navigating the spirit plane.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Hamato Yoshi

Splinter was once a man born as Hamato Yoshi in the small Japanese village that the Hamato Clan lived. He was the first child of Hisashi and Yoko Hamato.
As the way of Hamato, he was trained in the art of ninjutsu as young as childhood in preperation for his future role in protecting the Yokai Realm portal. One day, the Hamato's would adopt Oroku Saki, the grandson of Oroku Keiji and the last member of the Oroku Clan. They were similar in age, so they were immediately paired together for training.
Yoshi always tried to treat Saki like a real brother to him, but he was also very competitive and it was clear Hisashi held some favoritism for his biological children. While the family never abused or neglected Saki, Yoshi and his siblings always seemed to take priority, and it didn't go unnoticed by either of them. It didn't help that due to his competitiveness, Yoshi would often brag about his accomplishments and tease Saki for losing to a sparring match.
This rivalry turned bitter as they grew into adults, and Hisashi granted Yoshi with the title of Chunin. Saki was enraged by this, accusing Saki of nepotism, and ran away. He isn't seen for a long time.
Meanwhile, Yoshi meets a young woman named Tang Shen, and the two fall in love quickly. They get married and eventually Shen becomes pregnant with their child.
That's when Saki finally returns. He revealed he'd been isolating in the Yokai realm and encountered a powerful yokai demon known as the Yoroi Ketsueki, who accused all of the Guardian Clans of oppressing the yokai by keeping them, that they needed to be freed and start a new world order on the human realm.
These ideas were dangerous and being told by the most infamous demon in the yokai realm and Saki was scolded for making a deal with the armor and banished from the clan. Yoshi himself was the one to escort Saki off of the premises, which involved a nasty fight where Yoshi struck Saki's face and scarred it.
This would not be the end of the problems. For reasons unknown to Yoshi, perhaps it was rage and a desire for revenge, or perhaps trying to threaten information from her, Tang Shen was found dead in their home, stabbed fatally through the shoulder. The biggest suspect was Saki, who had fled the country to America not long after the murder would have happened. Distraught and heartbroken, Yoshi fell into a deep depression. He'd not only lost his wife, but the child they had on the way, and he was frustrated by his families' insistence to not involve the police. They believed that those who didn't know of the Yokai realm would not be able to help, and that only the Hamato alone could resolve it.
Hisashi sent Yoshi to America to track down Saki, as he was surely looking for another portal in the region. Yoshi agreed only because he felt like hunting down Saki would give him some sort of purpose, or closure for Tang Shen's death. However, when he arrived to New York, he found himself unable to face Saki again, and isolated himself in the woods in shame, resigning himself to protect the wild yoaki portal he'd found there.
For the next decade, Saki grew his wealth and influence in NYC, all while Yoshi remained alone in the forest, only going into the city to get supplies, and spending most of his time navigating the newly discovered Nanohana District that the portal lead to.

Becoming Splinter

13 years ago, Yoshi was woken up late at night by a loud crashing in the forest, and when he peaked outside he could only see smoke and a faint glow in the distance. He attempted to evacuate the cabin, fearing an explosion may have caused a forest fire, but was immediately pushed back by the sight of strange canisters of glowing liquid raining down from the sky, and the river glowing the same sickly color. He hid in his home and prayed that he'd be protected from whatever strange disaster had plagued the forest, and the next morning he trekked out to assess the damage.
He examined the river which was still contaminated with green sludge, when he found a group of baby turtles pinned into a rock by one of the canisters that fell. It has broken open and was spilling the ooze all over them. Further more, some of them were drowning because they couldn't move. There was no way to get to them without touching the substance himself, so he braved it and plucked each of the turtles from the rocked by hand.
They were badly hurt so he opted to turn back and bring them home. He cleaned them and his hands to the best of his ability before allowing them to rest in the bathtub overnight. After caring for them he fed his rat and went about his day. That night he awoke in dreadful pain, and his body seemed to be morphing, he was growing claws on his hands and hair across his body. He quickly checked himself in the bathroom when he noticed the turtles were also changing. They're limbs were growing longer and forming tiny hands and feet.
Over the next week, Yoshi slowly and painfully transformed into a half man, half rat creature. Meanwhile, the turtles became more humanoid, with arms and legs and little faces. They were growing bigger but they were still so small, and they would chirp in distress and pain. Yoshi found himself caring for the little ones as a distraction from his own pain. It wasn't until they had both finished mutating that he realized the turtles looked and behaved like babies, human babies, and the two older ones where starting to learn to talk.
He quickly came to the conclusion that while he became more animal like, the turtles have become more human like, and that he had on his hands 4 very young children. At first he debated if he was ready to be a father after losing Shen and their child, but he realized he couldn't let them try to fend for themselves. He decided for the time being he would take care of these children and figure out how to manage their new conditions with time.
The children often confused Yoshi with Splinter, the rat that had caused him to mutate. It was when Splinter tragically died to a mutant beast from the forest that he began calling himself Splinter. Because of the mutants and chemical contamination of the forest, the area was quarantined off by the government, and he began living there in with the boys in secret.
As the boys got older, they showed an interest in martial arts, mimicking the moves he used while practicing. He figured with how dangerous the outside world would be for them, that they would need to be able to defend themselves, so he began training them in ninjutsu.

Education

Yoshi got a formal schooling when he was a child in Japan. However he never went to university as he had prioritized his role as Chunin for his clan.

Employment

Splinter doesn't have a proper job, but he earns money by doing odd jobs in the yokai realm and selling the gold he gets in the human realm. He will also trade supplies and decent scrap he finds foraging with the local homeless population.

Mental Trauma

Splinter has PTSD from losing Tang Shen and his fight with Saki, to the point where the idea of fighting him again scared him too much to get the revenge he craved. The years he spent in isolation and the depression he carried took a toll on his mental health. While he tried his best to heal through spiritualism, little could fight the dark cloud that hung over him. Only his duty to the yokai portal kept him through some of his darkest moments.
That was until he found the turtles. Having them around has greatly improved his quality of life and given him something to live for.

Intellectual Characteristics

Splinter has grown wise with age. His experience in both the affairs of humans and yokai makes him suitable for giving the boys advice whenever they need it.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Splinter's life duty as Hamato has always been to protect the yokai realm from danger, but despite vengeance being a path that he knows leads to disaster and turmoil, there is a part of him that still wants to see Oroku Saki face justice for the atrocities he's committed. At the end of the day, however, his family is the most important thing to him and protecting them will always be his top priority.

Likes & Dislikes

________	Likes	Dislikes
Color	Mahogany
Food	Sushi, Udon, Cheese	Greasy food.
Music	Traditional Japanese, city pop, Jazz.	Hip hop
Activities	Meditation, gardening, watching soap operas	Leaving the house.
Book	The Samurai - Shūsaku Endō
Game	He hasn't played games beyond an atari console.

Virtues & Personality perks

Splinter is a incredibly skilled fighter and a wise man form is age. He is always able around to offer his children advice regardless of what they are struggling with. He cares deeply for other people, especially his family and has a deep sense of honor and duty to protect innocent people. He is not the feeble old man he appears to be either, as he can be a fierce opponent to even the most powerful enemies. Even the Shredder struggles in a fight with him.

Vices & Personality flaws

His years of depression and isolation has made him a very withdrawn person. There's much that he hides from his sons to protect them, but more often than not they get more hurt learning the truth on their own. He tends to be overly protective of the boys and forbids them from going out and exploring or making friends, due the justified fear of something terrible happening.

Social

Family Ties

Splinter used to be very close with his immediate family in the Hamato Clan, but after moving to America and his mutation, his contact with them have become very limited, near non-existent, perhaps out of shame in explaining his situation to them. He spends all his time with his children, as they are the only family that could understand what he was going through, to an extent.

Mannerisms

Splinter is a quiet, polite man. He tends to speak very formally and with a thick Japanese accent. When not in combat he tends to stay calm and move about quite slowly, due to the pain in his injured knee. Said injury means he has a distict limp to his steps, as well as the clank of his cane. But when he is fighting his moves become much more confident and swift.

Relationships

Splinter

Widower

Towards Tang Shen

0

0

---

Tang Shen

Late Wife

Towards Splinter

0

0

---

The Shredder

Adopted Brother - Disowned

Towards Splinter

-5

---

Splinter

Adopted Brother - Disowned

Towards The Shredder

-4

---

History

Yoshi and Saki were similar ages when they met for the first time. Saki was adopted into the family after the passing of his grandfather, and Yoshi tried his best to treat Saki like a brother. However, Saki didn't feel all that accepted into the family, as their father clearly showed some favoritism to Yoshi and his blood children. Yoshi and Saki would start training in ninjutsu soon after meeting and this fostered competitiveness between them.
It became clear though that Saki was alienated from the family and had no intention on actually forming a real bond with Yoshi, and simply wanted to be better than him. It was no surprise then when Saki abandoned them later in life and pledged his allegiance with a yokai demon. Even then, Yoshi didn't hate Saki, he was only disappointed in his actions, and hated being the one to have to send him away.
Saki took things too far when he took Tang Shen's life, and the life of his future child. It's something Yoshi could never forgive him for, and he vowed he would stop Saki before he hurt someone else. Deep down, Saki is still a brother to Yoshi, so facing him again would be a trial emotionally.

Relationship Reasoning

Saki sees Yoshi as a representation of everything he wasn't able to have growing up; a family, a loving wife, success, value, strength. He hates him for it and wishes nothing but to see it all taken away from him. Saki believes that he is more deserving of all of it cause he put in the work.
But when he finds out that Yoshi has mutated into a rat, he still isn't satisfied, because despite the set back, he still finds happiness.

Hamato Isao

Younger Brother

Towards Splinter

2

---

Splinter

Older Brother

Towards Hamato Isao

4

---

History

Isao was Yoshi's little brother. The two were close enough, but Isao often felt pushed into the background due to Yoshi and Saki's dynamic. It seemed like whenever they talked all Yoshi would do was talk about training, or rant about Saki. The times where they would actually relax and hang out like kids were few and far between, and he ended up being a lot closer to his other siblings than to Yoshi.
Still, Isao looked up to Yoshi as someone who could protect the family when things got bad, and cared for him a lot regardless of their relationship. He felt helpless when he couldn't ease Yoshi's grief of losing Tang Shen and begged him not to leave.

Relationship Reasoning

Currently Isao is a little bitter about Yoshi. Because he left, Isao had to take role of Chunin and give up his university and his dream job, only for nothing to come of it as his family sealed off the Yokai Realm portal. He feels a lot of anger and resentment toward Yoshi for leaving them behind and not writing, and for a while he was convinced the man was dead.
He also tends to blame Yoshi for his son's lack of respect for him, rather than his own failings as a father and teacher. Deep down, Isao wants to forgive Yoshi and go back to the way things were before, but even after seeing him again for the first time in 20 years, he still needs time to heal from the wound he left behind.

Kimura Ayumi

Younger Sister

Towards Splinter

4

---

Splinter

Older Brother

Towards Kimura Ayumi

4

---

History

Yoshi was Ayumi's older brother. She grew up with a lot of respect for him, but since he was always so busy with training, she didn't spend as much time with him as she did her other siblings. Yoshi still did care for his younger sisters though and would often go out of his way to scare off bullies for them and give them brotherly advice.

Relationship Reasoning

Ayumi still loves Yoshi, and understood why he left when he did, but his absence left an empty spot in the family for a long time. She was disappointed in Yoshi's lack of communication with the family after a while and, like the rest of the siblings, began to wonder if he was dead.
Of course she was relived to see him again, and was happy to be able to talk to him, but the fact he didn't tell any of them what had happened with his mutation made her feel a little bruised, like he didn't trust them to understand.

Hamato Fusae

Younger Sister

Towards Splinter

3

---

Splinter

Older Brother

Towards Hamato Fusae

3

---

History

Fusae never got to know Yoshi well. He was always around as a big brother figure for her when she was young, but he became more distance as he became an adult with other responsibilities. Fusae was only 11 when he left home, not to be seen again for another 20 years.

Relationship Reasoning

Yoshi is simply a vague childhood memory in Fusae's mind. As much as she'd love to see him again, she's reigned herself to assuming he will never come back. She got over it a long time ago.
She will still hug him and sob like a little girl if she did see him again though.

Species

Mutant

Mutant Type

Rex Rat

Year of Birth

1975 47 Years old

Family

Hamato Clan

Parents

Hamato Hisashi

Hamato Yoko

Spouses

Tang Shen (Late Wife)

Siblings

The Shredder (Adopted Brother - Disowned)

Hamato Isao (Younger Brother)

Kimura Ayumi (Younger Sister)

Hamato Fusae (Younger Sister)

Children

• Donatello
• Leonardo
• Raphael
• Michelangelo

Eyes

Black

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Fluffy, Brown and greying.

Height

5'10

Known Languages

Japanese (Native)

English

Related Historical Events

• 2009
  Turtle's and Splinters Mutation