<sarcasm>It's not easy being green.</sarcasm>
The "origin of the TMNT" refers to a series of events present in most Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fictional universes, which ultimately culminate in the mutations of Splinter and the Ninja Turtles. Most versions are similar to outline of Hamato Splinter's tale in the first issue of the Mirage comics: Hamato Yoshi is slain by Oroku Saki and Splinter takes refuge in the sewers, where he discovers four baby turtles have been dropped by a young boy. One day, Splinter returns to find the turtles crawling in a strange ooze, and their mutations into humanoid creatures begins.
Though most versions of the origin include these similar elements, many differences are also present. Some delve deeper into the past, some have added minute details, and some have even altered the origins of the ooze or the identities of the characters. The most well-known versions are those presented in the 1990 film series and the 1987 TV series, although they are wholly irreconcilable with one another.
The origin of the Ninja Turtles borrows elements from the origin of the Marvel Comics superhero Daredevil: an old man crossing the street, an out of control truck carrying radioactive isotopes, a young man pushing the old man out of harm's way. The only difference in plot is the isotope hitting the four turtle hatchlings, instead of the young man near the eyes.
Mirage[]
The Mirage version of the origin story lays out what would become the most common elements among the origin stories. It is recounted to the Ninja Turtles in The Turtles' Origin is Told after their first successful battle. This origin is shared with the Image continuity and the Palladium source books.
Decades ago in Japan, there existed a ninja clan known as the Foot. Among the Foot's ranks was Hamato Yoshi, Splinter's original owner. From his cage, Splinter enjoyed mimicking Yoshi's movements, forming the basis for his knowledge of ninjutsu. Yoshi often clashed with a fellow member of the clan, Oroku Nagi, over the love of a woman named Tang Shen. When it became clear that Shen loved only Yoshi, Nagi arrived at her home and savagely beat her. She was saved by Yoshi, who in a moment of rage, murdered Nagi with his bare hands.
<sarcasm>One more thing...</sarcasm>
Knowing that the Foot would not accept the murder of another member, Yoshi, Shen, and their pet rat Splinter fled to New York City, where he founded a small martial arts school. Meanwhile, the Foot continued to train Nagi's younger brother, Oroku Saki. Fueled by a thirst for vengeance, Saki eventually became a high-ranking member of the organization, and was tasked with leading a branch of the Foot in New York. Once there, Saki adopted the mantel of the Shredder and led the clan to the highest ranks of the underworld, specializing in burglary, espionage, and assassination. Yet the entire time, Saki sought the opportunity to avenge his brother by slaying Yoshi.
One night, Yoshi returned home to find his apartment ransacked and Shen lying dead on the floor. Yoshi then saw the Shredder, who, revealing his identity as Saki, promptly murdered Yoshi with his blades. Alone and grief-stricken, Splinter escaped into the sewers, rummaging for food to survive.
In 1969, a young boy named Chester Manley was carrying four red-eared slider hatchlings home from a pet shop. A blind man was crossing the road when a truck labeled "T.C.R.I." almost ran him down. A young man behind Chet with the turtles dashed to save the blind man, bumping into Chet and knocking the jar from his hands. The jar broke when it landed in the gutter, and the turtles were washed down a sewer drainage grate. As the truck swerved, its back doors swung open. A container of green glowing goo fell out and was subsequently washed down the drain with the turtle hatchlings. The red-eared sliders landed safely, until the jar of goo fell beside them, coating them with its contents.
<sarcasm>Hmmm...Yes, it definately tastes like ooze.</sarcasm>
Moments later, Splinter came across the hatchlings, gathering them into a can. He didn't realize he was coating himself with the green goo as he gathered them up. In very little time, Splinter and the turtles evolved and mutated into sapient anthropomorphic beings. Their mutation near completion, and educated, he named the Ninja Turtles after Renaissance artists Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo, Raphael. For the next 15 years, Splinter raised and instructed his sons, the Ninja Turtles, in the martial arts in order avenge his master.
It is later revealed that the ooze was created by a group of benevolent aliens known as Utroms.
1987 TV series[]
The 1987 TV series deviates noticeably from the origin of the Mirage comics, completely removing Tang Shen and Oroku Nagi, and actually turning Hamato Yoshi into Splinter. In the series, Splinter relays his origin not to the Ninja Turtles, but to reporter April O'Neil in "Turtle Tracks". The alterations in this origin story were likely due censorship placed on death within children's cartoons. It also served to introduce the gimmick of the cartoon's mutagen; its property to merge animal and human DNA was unique to the series and was used extensively in the origin stories for various mutants in the toyline. Whereas most versions depict the mutagen as a product of T.C.R.I., here it is created by Krang, who allowed Oroku Saki to dump it in the sewers in hopes of killing Yoshi.
In 1960s Japan, Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki were members of the Foot Clan. Here the Foot Clan is portrayed as a peaceful organization, Yoshi himself a quiet man who loved Renaissance art. He had a long-standing rivalry with Saki, who always planned to overthrow Yoshi as leader of the clan. When a master sensei arrived, Saki planted a dagger in Yoshi's keikogi, framing him in an assassination attempt. Dishonored, Yoshi was excommunicated by the Foot and fled to New York, where he lived homeless in the sewers.
<sarcasm>"Yoshi, your horribly deformed feet dishonor the Foot Clan!"</sarcasm>
Hamato Yoshi dishonored in front of the Foot Clan after losing a sparring match.
Back in Japan, Saki turned the Foot into an army of crime, using their ninja skills for personal gain.
Later, Chester Manley dropped a fishbowl of turtle hatchlings down a New York storm drain. Yoshi found them and raised them as pets. One day, he discovered the turtles crawling in a broken canister of glowing, purple ooze, and proceeded to clean them. Yoshi later realized that the ooze was a powerful mutagen, capable of mutating any lifeform by combining their genetic code with the DNA of whatever animal it last touched. As the turtles had last touched Yoshi, they became humanoid. Yoshi, however, had most recently been in contact with the rats, and thus became a half-man, half-rat mutant.
<sarcasm>Then again, it ain't easy being purple either...</sarcasm>
As ever, Yoshi named his sons after Renaissance artists and taught them ninjutsu, although it was for protection rather than vengeance. The Ninja Turtles began to call him "Splinter" in reference to his proficiency in breaking wood boards, a name which he willingly adopted.
This origin is shared with the comic series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, where it is again recounted to April O'Neil in Heroes in a Half-Shell! Part 1. However, it was later retconned in the main series' 45th issue so that Yoshi was framed for the actual murder of one of his students and that the Ninja Turtles were still infants after their mutation and grew to become teenagers while Splinter raised them and trained them in ninjutsu.
1990 film series[]
The origin of the 1990 film continuity is largely similar to the Mirage comics. It does, however, contain some minor differences. Tang Shen's name is changed to "Thang Shin". The character of Oroku Nagi is removed completely and Hamato Yoshi's conflict is with Oroku Saki directly. The ooze is not a product of TCRI, but the similarly named TGRI. The company is revealed in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze to be a normal scientific firm that created the ooze by accident, rather than an alien front like the Mirage comics. While it is never explicitly stated, it is likely that this origin is shared by the live action TV series Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. The series never reveals a proper origin story, but certain visual cues, such as Splinter's damaged ear, seem to imply similar events to those of the films.
The 1990 film shows that Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki were bitter rivals in most things, but none more fiercely that for the love of a woman named Thang Shin. Shin persuaded Yoshi to flee with her to New York to avoid having to fight Saki for her hand in marriage (although not directly stated, this would have presumably been a fight to the death). However, they were followed by Saki, who murdered them both in their home. Splinter leapt from his cage and permanently scarred Saki's face. In retaliation, Saki sliced off a portion of Splinter's ear. From there on the story remains primarily unchanged. Splinter discovered four turtle hatchlings crawling in a puddle of ooze in the sewer. Their mutations then began and Splinter taught them martial arts. However, Splinter didn't train the Ninja Turtles in ninjutsu with the direct intent of vengeance upon Saki as he did in the Mirage comics, but rather—just like in the 1987 TV series—for protection and as a way to remain unseen by a world he felt "could never understand" and "could never be ours".
2003 TV series[]
The 2003 TV series' origin borrows many elements from the Mirage comics more than any other version of TMNT. This is also present in the origin of the Ninja Turtles. In this version, the Shredder has direct influence in the Ninja Turtles' orgin (much like in the 1987 TV series). Oroku Nagi's role as Hamato Yoshi's rival in the origin is replaced by new character Yukio Mashimi.
However, there is one major difference in the Shredder's motives for murdering Yoshi instead of being because of his unrequited love for Tang Shen or to avenge his older brother's murder. The Shredder was actually an evil Utrom named Ch'rell, a being who nearly conquered the universe. That is why his punishment was banishment. While being transported by a ship lead by Mortu, Ch'rell escaped and sabotaged the ship, which caused it to crash on Earth. The ship landed in feudal Japan, where Ch'rell heard the legend of the awful demon the Shredder who took over the noble warrior, Oroku Saki. Ch'rell then took the identity for himself after he stole an Utrom Exoskeleton the Utroms made from leftovers from their ship.
<sarcasm>So wait, Shread-head was actually a little pink slug? Huh, good to know.</sarcasm>
Ch'rell outside of his Utrom Exoskeleton.
Hamato Yoshi was an impoverished preteen in 1960s Tōkyō in the aftermath of the Second World War. He was a beggar with close friend and fellow orphan Yukio Mashimi. Their lives changed positively when they were adopted by the Ancient One for kindly returning a 5 yen coin he had dropped and successfully snatching it from his palm as instructed. Mashimi and Yoshi were then trained by their adoptive father in ninjutsu and remained closely bonded as they aged. Once the Ancient One adopted the orphaned Tang Shen, the brothers fell in love with her. However, Shen only had romantic feelings for Yoshi. She eventually adopted a rat that had snuck into the kitchen as the family pet.
Mashimi, Shen, and Yoshi encountered a lone stranger being attacked by a group of Foot Ninja one night and Mashimi and Yoshi fended them off. The stranger's mechanical arm was torn off during the skirmish and he revealed himself to be Mortu, an Utrom disguised as a human. Mashimi and Yoshi were then invited by Mortu to become Guardians of the Utroms, sworn to keep the Utroms' secret identity and real nature from the rest of the world and protect them from Ch'rell.
Their relationship suffered from Mashimi's jealousy of Yoshi's promotion to Guardian Prime and his romance with Shen, leading to him murdering Shen when they were alone at home and joining the Foot Clan. The same night, Mashimi exposed the Guardians' base to the Foot, putting the Utroms in grave danger to hurt Yoshi. Yoshi and the Utroms escaped and he returned home to the news of Shen's death. He then set out to murder Mashimi in revenge at the Foot headquarters, successfully striking him down in a duel overseen by the Shredder. Because the Utroms decided to relocate to New York City for safety, Yoshi followed them to continue protecting them, taking the newly named pet rat Splinter with him and leaving the Ancient One. He named him "Splinter" in reference to his father's advice given prior to his murder of Mashimi: "Vengeance is like a splinter, it gets under your skin and can poison your life" and to remind himself "what [he] had done and what [he] had failed to do".
The Shredder and his Foot Ninja, along with his servant, Hun, found Yoshi's apartment and tried to force him to reveal the Utroms' location. However, Yoshi refused and was murdered by the Shredder in turn. Splinter tried and failed to save his master and clawed Hun, leaving a scar. Splinter was thrown out the apartment window by Hun and then lived on the streets, heartbroken by Yoshi's death.
Shortly after losing his home, Splinter witnessed four pet turtle hatchlings being dropped by a young boy when a man tried to help a blind old man crossing the street about to get hit by a T.C.R.I. truck. The hatchlings consequently fell down a storm drain and were exposed to a mutagen flying out of the same truck. Splinter was exposed to the mutagen himself as one of the turtles shook it from himself onto him while he placed them inside a coffee can. He took them to his burrow in the sewers and they all then mutated overnight, gaining human-body characteristics and sapience. Splinter decided to teach them ninjutsu which he learned by copying Yoshi's moves while training to protect themselves.
IDW[]
The IDW comic provides a very different and more complicated origin that uses elements from the 1987 TV series and Mirage continuities.
In this incarnation, Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki were members of the Foot Clan in feudal Japan. Yoshi disagreed with Saki's views on attacking enemies mercilessly, so he left with his wife Tang Shen and had four sons with her. Shen was murdered in an attack one night led by Saki who considered Yoshi's defiance treasonous. Shen's dying words requested Yoshi not to enact vengeance on Saki, but to safely escape with their children. Yoshi raised his sons while traveling the lands for 11 years, but they were discovered by the Foot and Yoshi was killed following his sons' executions, but not before vowing to take homicidal revenge on Saki.
In 2011, Yoshi and his sons were reincarnated as a rat and four turtles respectively and were used as test subjects in a research facility called Stockgen, run by Baxter Stockman. April O'Neil was an intern at Stockgen who gave the rat and the turtles the names Splinter, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Their mutations here were the result of an experiment by Stockgen to create mutagen for creating more powerful soldiers for Krang. Thanks to an experimental brain serum that was injected into him, Splinter remembered his past life as Yoshi.
As the Ninja Turtles grew and mutated, Splinter led them to flee Stockgen and go into hiding, but lost Raphael. Until Raphael was reunited with his brothers, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo wore red bandannas to remember him as it was his favorite color. Once Raphael returned, he became the sole Ninja Turtle to wear red and Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo wore their respective colors of blue, purple, and orange (implied to be their favorites).
Unlike in the Mirage comics, Splinter did not initially train the Ninja Turtles in ninjutsu for revenge against Shredder, since he did not discover that Shredder was still alive until their training was over.
2012 TV series[]
The 2012 TV series' origin borrows elements from multiple previous incarnations of TMNT.
In this incarnation, Oroku Saki and Hamato Yoshi were members of the Hamato Clan living in Tōkyō. The adopted brothers were rivals, but they never fought more over anything than over the love of Tang Shen. However, she chose Yoshi and the two married. They had a child named Hamato Miwa together. A few months after Miwa's birth, Saki came into their home wielding tekkō-kagi after learning of his true identity (he later gained the title the Shredder) and started a fight with Yoshi. A fire was started, in which Shen perished by no one's intention and Saki became bald and disfigured. Saki stole Miwa in the confusion, renamed her Karai, and raised her as his adopted daughter as he began rebuilding the Foot Clan.
Seeking to start a new life while respecting Shen's wish to see the United States of America, Yoshi fled to New York City, where he bought himself four turtle hatchlings as pets. On the way to his apartment, he bumped into what appeared to be a strange man. Sensing something odd about him, he followed him and found himself in front of a meeting between the Kraang. The Kraang attacked, but he defeated them. A canister full of a strange ooze hit Yoshi and his turtles, causing them to mutate. As Yoshi had accidentally stepped on a rat as he was spying on the Kraang, he ended up transforming into a giant anthropomorphic rat, while the turtle hatchlings, since they had been in contact with human hands, ended up rapidly evolving into humanoid forms.
He took the name the Ninja Turtles gave him, "Splinter", and taught ninjutsu for self-protection against the outside world. Because of his long-standing interest in art, he gave the names of four Renaissance artists: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael.
2014 film series[]
In the 2014 film series' origin, Splinter is neither a mutated Hamato Yoshi nor Yoshi's pet rat as Yoshi doesn't exist in-universe. The Ninja Turtles are all red-eared sliders and their mutation occurs much slower than in previous continuities, taking weeks for them to develop human strength, their bodies unchanged.
Eric Sacks was born in an Okinawa military base and adopted by Oroku Saki following his father's disappearance in the Vietnam War where he became his student. While Saki made him feel accepted, his principles proved to be a horrible influence to Eric. He moved to New York City as an adult and founded Sacks Industries where he became the employer of April O'Neil's father, Doctor O'Neil.
In 1999, Splinter and the turtles were the childhood pets of April who were used as Sacks Industries laboratory experiments in an effort called Project Renaissance. The project aimed to create a cure capable of cellular repair in the form of a mutagen. When Splinter was an adult rat and the turtles were hatchlings, Eric injected them with mutagen daily. Unbeknownst to Doctor O'Neil, Eric's ultimate motivation for the mutagen's creation was to make an antidote to a lethal chemical attack he and Saki would secretly unleash upon New York City at the Sacks Tower spire. Once they used Sacks Industries' mutagen to remedy it, it would improve Eric and the Foot Clan's reputations and grant them immense power over New York City. Eric's scheme was inspired by a story Saki shared about a brutish warlord in 9th century Japan who poisoned a water supply and then later cured said poison, elevating him to a heroic status.
However, Doctor O'Neil eventually uncovered Eric's true intentions and defiantly set fire to the Project Renaissance laboratory to obliterate their research, but was murdered by Eric. Everything except for Splinter and the turtles was destroyed and they were rescued from the fire by April. They were left at a sewer grate and made the sewers their lair. Some time later, they all began to develop sapience and humanoid bodies where then Splinter raised the turtles as his sons in the image of Doctor O'Neil's relationship with April. Splinter found a ninjutsu book while sweeping in the sewers and then chose to teach the turtles ninjutsu for self-protection by first teaching it to himself and then to his sons.
The Ninja Turtles iconic colors are derived from the red, purple, blue, and orange stickers placed on their carapaces for identification during Project Renaissance and April provided them with their names, including Splinter's.
Rise of the TMNT[]
The 2018 animated series' origin veers dramatically from previous TMNT incarnations. Oroku Saki is a decent person unfortunately possessed by the evil Shredder who is a demon directly tied to a mystic armor created by the Krang. Despite being raised in it, Hamato Yoshi rejects traditional Japanese culture instead of fostering it and becomes a martial arts movie star known as "Lou Jitsu". While Tang Shen exists in-universe, she isn't Yoshi's main love interest—Big Mama fills that role. Although Yoshi's mutation into a rat is accidental, the Ninja Turtles are deliberate creations and Yoshi's biological sons. The Ninja Turtles are illegally made by Yōkai Baron Draxum with the purpose of destroying humanity.
In the 1500s, Oroku Saki led a peaceful Japanese clan called the Foot and was the father of his young daughter, Karai. One night, the Foot was cruelly attacked by an unnamed clan whose motivations to do so are unknown. Saki made a desperate deal with a Krang in an effort to save his clan in which he was given a powerful suit of mystic armor to wear called the Kuroi Yōroi. He was able to defend his clan using it, but Saki's soul was lost to the Kuroi Yōroi's corruption, altering him into a demon called the Shredder. The Shredder led the Foot into widespread violence across Japan, destroying villages and murdering innocents. Outraged by the Foot's newfound villainy, Karai defected from it to establish her own clan called the Hamato to combat the Foot. Eventually, Karai confronted the Shredder in a battle and banished him and herself into the Twilight Realm to save the Earth, a sacrifice that would echo through the Hamato Clan for generations.
In the 1960s, Hamato Atsuko gave birth to her only child Hamato Yoshi and raised him with her father Hamato Sho. Only a few years later, Atsuko left her father and son to carry out an unspecified Hamato obligation. Yoshi was then left alone with his grandfather Sho, forever changed by his mother's departure. Since clan duties took his mother away, Yoshi grew to resent the Hamato Clan and resisted its values despite Sho repeatedly trying to instill them in him. By the time he was a teenager, Yoshi even believed that the Shredder was merely a fictitious being and that the duty to defend the world from him Sho kept insisting was his was built on nothing legitimate.
Yoshi adopted the stage name "Lou Jitsu" and became a movie star in Japan upon adulthood, much to Sho's disapproval. After gaining fortune and fame, he immigrated to America where his film career also flourished. He then met Big Mama, his filming trailer's driver, and they became a happy couple. Some time later while on a dinner date with her, Lou Jitsu asked Big Mama to be his wife, but she didn't agree, instead revealing that she wasn't a human but a Yōkai and abducted him. He was brought to the Hidden City where Big Mama forced him to fight Yōkai in her Battle Nexus for her own profit for 10 years. Lou Jitsu became the greatest Battle Nexus champion ever, causing him to accidentally catch the interest of Baron Draxum who, thoroughly impressed with his combat skills, sought to use him to create a battle-ready army to fight humanity.
Lou Jitsu developed a disgust for violence and was imprisoned in a cell by Big Mama for his refusal to compete. During this time in roughly 2005, Huginn and Muninn were hired by Draxum as his assistants and kidnapped Lou Jitsu for him. He was taken to Draxum's laboratory with the rat he somewhat befriended in his Battle Nexus cell. There he met the turtles in a box near his cage, instantly becoming fond of them. Lou Jitsu initially allowed Draxum to conduct his experiment, apathetic to his own well-being, but once Draxum revealed he aimed to experiment on the turtles and mutated them, Lou Jitsu fought back. Huginn and Muninn's efforts to aid Draxum in his battle against Lou Jitsu went astray when they unintentionally caused his entire laboratory to explode by freeing one of his other experimental subjects. Since the machine that held Draxum's ooze was damaged, ooze rained down upon Lou Jitsu, mutating him into a rat because of his contact with the rat he had traveled with. Lou Jitsu fled to the surface with the four turtles and took on the name "Splinter" and Draxum resolved to continue his work.
Splinter was unwilling to return to the Hidden City that had exploited him and was unable to return to human society so he took his sons partway underground to the sewers of New York City where he established a lair for them to live in. Because Draxum utilized Lou Jitsu's DNA to give the Ninja Turtles human characteristics, they were his biological sons and, despite being four different species, biological brothers, too. Because his film career made him well traveled, Splinter gained a deep respect for Renaissance art and thus named the Turtles after Renaissance artists.[1][2] However, Splinter didn't raise them in the Hamato culture he took issue with and since he knew they were intended to be soldiers, he didn't prioritize ninjutsu training and purposefully reared them with the normalcy of human children as much as he could, which they would've originally been deprived of and what he himself was deprived of in childhood.
Mutant Mayhem[]
Somewhere in 2008, a rogue scientist named Baxter Stockman made mutagen so he can make a mutant family to raise, however, he was killed by the TCRI forces when an explosion set off. Unaware that the guards, the vial of ooze slipped through the drain pipe and into the sewer where it landed on four baby turtles. Then, they were found by a rat named Splinter who doesn’t have any friends and he was the first to find them. The mutagen takes effect, turning the five animals into mutants. Splinter became a father and started to raise the baby turtles and named them Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Rapheal. As toddlers, they begged Splinter that they wanted to see the outside world. He decided to give it a try, but it didn’t go well. The humans panicked and started throwing bottles and cans at them as Splinter and the turtles retreated.
To defend themselves and fear that humans would milk their blood, Splinter trains the turtles to be ninjas and sets them out to gather food and other objects at night. Even though he is concerned that his sons wanted to see the outside world, he reminded them that humans are dangerous and they remained hidden in the sewer for fifteen years.