

(Elektra: The Hand v1 #1) By 1597, his travels had led to him concluding that Japan had fallen under the corruption perpetrated by foreigners and weak leaders. Kagenobu would be at the school for ten years before departing as a ronin in order to see the rest of Japan. To save her son, his mother claimed to the authorities that she had killed the foreigner leading to her being executed though the child Yoshioka was taken in by Sensei Saburo Ishiyama of the Ishiyama Sword School. During this time, his mother was assaulted by a Portuguese merchant who intended to have his way with her but was kill by the young Kagenobu.

(Elektra v1 #15) One origin claimed that they formed in the year 1575 in Japan by a boy named Kagenobu Yoshioka who had lost his father who was a samurai and his mother had to resort to sexual relations in exchange for money.

(Wolverine v3 #29) The nameless ninja clan that became the clan first gathered in the Valley of Mercy and Wrath in Japan. It was said to be older than their homeland of Japan with the Hand dated back four billion years ago where it was created by its founding fathers that were rumoured to had lived by the modern age. The Hand was a secretive cult of ninja warriors that had operated on Earth.
