- "Eternity can be a curse. It hasn't been easy for you, living without time. The losses you have had to suffer...a man can run out of things to live for, lose his purpose...become a Ronin, a Samurai without a master. I can end your eternity, make you mortal."
- ―Ichirō Yashida explains his motives to Logan
Ichirō Yashida was a Japanese business tycoon and former soldier of the Japanese Imperial Army whose life was saved by Wolverine during World War II.
Quick Answers
How did Ichirō Yashida's life intersect with Wolverine during World War II?
What is the significance of the Danzan sword in Ichirō Yashida and Wolverine's relationship?
How did Ichirō Yashida transition from a soldier to a business tycoon?
What role does the Yashida Corporation play in the Wolverine movie set in Japan?
How does the Nagasaki bombing impact the story of Ichirō Yashida and Wolverine?
Biography
Original Timeline
The Wolverine
During the Nagasaki bombing in 1945, Yashida's life was saved by Logan. In return for his actions, Yashida wanted to give Logan his sword, Danzan ("Separator" in Japanese). Logan refuses, but states that he would one day return for it.
Logan and younger Ichiro.
After the war, in 1953, Yashida established the Yashida Corporation, which would become a power technology conglomerate. Additionally, following his encounter with Logan, Yashida became obsessed with both mutants in general and Logan's healing abilities in particular, and branched into exploring forms of genetic science to extrapolate mutations. This led him to develop a genetic manipulation device capable of removing mutations and transferring them from one body to another. In the last years of his life, he began stockpiling adamantium at his research facility in northern Japan.
Realizing his life was drawing to a close, Yashida sent his foster granddaughter Yukio to find Logan so that he could properly bid him farewell. Not too long before, Yashida went to America to receive treatment, where he met Dr. Green, whom he hired as his oncologist.
When Logan arrived in Japan, Yashida offered to take Logan's immortality away from him through his genetic manipulation device, and pass it into his own body, as he feared for the safety of Mariko, his granddaughter.
Logan refused, and was injected with a robotic parasite by Viper. Later that night, Yashida dies, which shocks Yukio as she was unable to predict his death using her precognitive abilities. At the funeral the following day, Yukio comments that the Yashida family's Silver Samurai armor would stand over Ichirō forever. The Yakuza then disrupt the proceedings and attempt to capture Mariko.
It was later revealed that Yashida faked his death and was using the Silver Samurai armor to keep himself alive, which explains why he had been stockpiling adamantium. He battles Wolverine, cuts off his adamantium claws, and started to then extract his immortality. Short of having eternal life, he was stopped by his granddaughter Mariko Yashida. He tries to stop her by reminding he is her grandfather, but she replies she buried her grandfather.
He was then confronted by Wolverine who tells him "You asked me to come say goodbye. Sayōnara!". He was finally killed after taking two deep stabs in the chest by Wolverine's bone claws, and tossed off the edge on to the mountains below.
Revised Timeline
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Due to Wolverine traveling back in time to January 1973, and preventing Bolivar Trask from being assassinated by Mystique, and changing the significant events after that point, significant events involving Yashida and Wolverine occurred in 2013 in the original time never took place.
Powers
- Limited Regenerative Healing Factor: While his armor was extracting Wolverine's regenerative healing, his body, through artificial means, gained a small portion of it that allowed him to regenerate his youth in seconds, heal minor injuries within his bodies, as well as being stabbed on his head with one of Wolverine's claws. However, the process appeared to be incomplete, as once Wolverine was freed from the armor's grasp, Yashida quickly began regressing to his old age.
Equipment
- "That armor belonged to Shiruba-Samurai... the Silver Samurai. It will stand watch over the old man forever."
- ―Yukio
- Silver Samurai Armor: A suit of samurai armor, referred to as the Silver Samurai (シルバーサムライ), was present at his funeral as a symbolic guardian. He later wore a giant robotic adamantium suit and carried heated adamantium swords against the Wolverine.
Relationships
Family
- Shingen Yashida † - Son
- Mariko Yashida - Granddaughter
Allies
- Viper †
Enemies
- Noburo Mori
- Kenuichio Harada † - Ally turned Enemy
- Yukio † - Ally turned Enemy
- Wolverine † - Savior turned Enemy and Attempted Victim
Trivia
- During WWII, Yashida was a First Lieutenant in the Japanese Imperial Army, according to his collar insignia.
- Yashida is one of the three human characters to be a main villain of an X-Men film. The other two are William Stryker and Donald Pierce.
- Yashida may be based loosely off Ogun, a Japanese ninja who trained Wolverine and Shadowcat in the comics.
- Ironically, Ogun is a mutant with telepathy and a demonic astral form that allows him to possess bodies, in the film he is a human businessman who seems to have been a Samurai rather than a Ninja.
- During the Death of Wolverine storyline, Ogun wanted to possess Wolverine's body for his healing factor. Yashida wanted to extract it from Wolverine's bone marrow.
- He indirectly foreshadows the film Logan when he says "You can grow old", which Logan did, "have a family" (Xavier, Caliban and Laura) and "eventually... die." Which occurs at the end of the film.
- Yashida's sword, Danzan appears in the film Logan in Logan's hideout.
Behind the Scenes
- Jeremy Marinas was a stunt double for Ken Yamamura in the role of Ichirō Yashida.
