A dying industrialist who owes Logan his life, and decides that the way to repay it is to take Logan's.
Ichiro Yashida is the grandfather of Mariko, the father of Shingen, and the founder of the Yashida Corporation. Logan saved him during the bombing of Nagasaki in the Second World War, and decades later he sends for Logan to say he is dying. What he actually wants is the healing.
The Wolverine is the only film in this series that is really about the cost of not being able to die, and Yashida is the argument on the other side: a man who has had a long life and does not accept that it is ending. The film is at its best before the armour shows up.
Show detailsThe name the film gives to somebody else
In the comics the Silver Samurai is Kenuichio Harada. The Wolverine has a character called Harada, played by Will Yun Lee, who is a different man entirely, and puts the armour on Yashida instead. Wikipedia’s cast table for the series carries both names in the same row, which is where the confusion usually starts.