Hamato Yoshi - 1987 Cartoon & TMNT Adventures

1987 Cartoon & TMNT Adventures

In the 1987 TMNT cartoon and the TMNT Adventures comics that followed, Hamato Yoshi and Splinter are the same character, and the romantic subplot was eliminated.

Hamato Yoshi was once a member in good standing of the Foot Clan in Japan. Oroku Saki framed him for attempted murder of one of the Clan's leaders, and had him exiled to New York, where Yoshi was forced to live in the sewers in shame, and befriended the rats. Years later, when Saki moved to New York himself, he dumped mutagen into the sewers to kill Yoshi. Instead, the mutagen caused Yoshi and his four pet turtles to mutate. Yoshi himself mutated into a humanoid rat, as the last animal he was in contact with before he stepped into the mutagen were rats, even though he picked up the turtles just after he touched the mutagen and he tried to clean the mutagen off of them right before they mutated into their humanoid forms — and took on the nickname Splinter as given to him by the turtles themselves because he could break wooden boards into splinters. He then proceeded to teach ninjutsu to the Turtles, to teach them self-defense because those who are different are feared by many.

In the episode Splinter No More, Donatello finds a remedy to the mutagen effect and uses it to turn Splinter back into Hamato Yoshi. He thus returns to the surface and the streets, but finds it difficult to re-adapt into normal everyday human life. When the effects of the remedy wear off, Yoshi turns back into Splinter and returns to the Turtles with few regrets about leaving his human life behind.

In the Japanese dub of the 1987 series, his name is "Takeshi Yoshihama" (吉浜武士 Yoshihama Takeshi).