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In Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Hamato Clan is a ninja family of Japanese origin descended from Hamato Karai.

Roster[]

*Deceased members are in italics.

Prominent friends and allies[]

Prominent enemies[]

History[]

In Japan, 500 years in the past, Hamato Karai was the daughter of Foot Clan leader Oroku Saki, who was once a peaceful jōnin, but his soul became corrupted into the Shredder after an alien named Krang gave him the Kuroi Yōroi. Karai denounced what her father had become, and founded the Hamato Clan with the purpose of opposing the Shredder. The Shredder was vanquished by Karai's use of Hamato Ninpō, confining herself along with the Shredder in the Twilight Realm indefinitely. The Kuroi Yōroi was then disassembled and scattered by the clan and the armor's faceplate was modified into a tetsubin tea kettle named Skully, becoming an heirloom to be guarded by each Hamato generation.

Over the centuries, the Hamato Clan dwindled, until the present day when Hamato Yoshi was the last known survivor. For a time, he rejected his Hamato Ninpō training and sought a career in film acting as the martial artist "Lou Jitsu", rising to stardom in Japan and later moving to the United States of America and achieving celebrity there as well.[1] But Yoshi's film career ended in the mid-1990s[2] once he was abducted by Big Mama and forced to compete in her Battle Nexus in the Hidden City beneath New York. He later found himself mutated circa 2005[2] after a confrontation with the Yōkai alchemist Baron Draxum and escaped with four juvenile turtles, who had mutated alongside him as they amalgamated with his human DNA, and in the process became his biological sons and true members of the Hamato Clan in their own right.

Yoshi, who at this time preferred to go by the name Splinter, squatted in the sewers of New York City with his sons until they were teenagers, and grew unathletic from a sedentary lifestyle. Though they received some sporadic ninja training, he had not trained them in the Hamato Ninpō. They befriended a human from the surface named April O'Neil multiple years prior to 2018, who since then became not only a close friend of the Turtles but like a sister to them.

The Foot Clan, whose ranks were joined by Draxum, would gradually revive the Shredder by reassembling the scattered pieces of the Kuroi Yōroi, and Splinter came to understand that the old teachings he had refuted were entirely true. In 2019, Splinter and his family learned of a weapon to defeat the Shredder existing in the Twilight Realm during their ongoing conflict with the Foot Clan, which Draxum, now their ally had become acknowledged as the Turtles' second father, helped them retrieve. This weapon was actually a person: Karai herself, sealed away since the 1500s.

The Turtles immediately accepted Karai as their grandmother and were eager to know her as family who had been absent throughout their lives. But this was short-lived, as freeing Karai had also reawakened the Shredder's consciousness, and he quickly descended on and attacked the family's underground home. Karai was mortally wounded, but in her final moments, she was found by April, who was implored by Karai to teach Hamato Ninpō to the rest of the family, revealing that April had always in fact been a member of the Hamato Clan herself.

Karai's spirit dwelt in April's mind, and together, the two Hamato women finally taught Hamato Ninpō to the Turtles. With this power, the combined Hamato Clan, including the spirits of their ancestors, joined forces to destroy the Kuroi Yōroi once and for all. This had the effect of freeing Saki's soul from its corrupting influence, allowing his spirit to move on peacefully with his daughter Karai. With this, the Hamato turtles had finally risen to their destiny of fulfilling the clan's purpose.

Trivia[]

  • In this continuity, the culture of the Hamato Clan, the Hamato way, is self-sacrificial due to the clan's commitment to protect humanity from the Shredder. Since the Shredder is already subdued, this duty is preventative, resulting in every Hamato Clan member needing to maintain lifelong vigilance for the Shredder's resurrection and be poised to combat whatever threatens to execute it.[3][4][5] A Hamato Clan member's personal sacrifice in service to this cause (e.g., perpetual isolation, death, etc.) is highly valued and regarded as a glorious honor and a sacred obligation among the clan.
  • Red and black are the traditional colors of the Hamato Clan.
  • The Hamato Clan's traditional saying is "Anata wa hitori ja nai".
  • The Hamato Clan emblem is similar to the symbol of the Hamato Clan from the 2012 TV series.
    • Both symbols resemble a pepperoni pizza pie with five slices (i.e., Splinter and the four turtles). Although the 2012 TV series' emblem design is more complex as it also resembles a stylized turtle seen from above or a kikyō (bell flower), which is also used in the family crests of the Fumizuki and Toki clan.

References[]

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