Tōtsuka Sword

The **Tōtsuka Sword** is a cursed katana and major plot device in *Mutant Ninja Turtles Gaiden*. Hamato Splinter dies helping his son Leonardo destroy it before it can destroy their entire family.

## Description

The Tōtsuka Sword has two forms. Most of the time, it appears to be a broken, worn-down ancient artifact. But when wielded, its Curse of Yamata-no-Orochi infects its wielder, and the sword instantly transforms into a whole, sharp katana. In this latter state, the part of the blade that meets the hilt is covered in supernatural lines that resemble bulging blood vessels. When the sword is released by its wielder, it instantly reverts to its worn-down appearance.

## History

According to legends provided by Karai in Chapter 21: *The Curse of "Yamata-no-Orochi"*, the Tōtsuka Sword was originally wielded in ancient times by the Shintō god Susano-o, and was used to defeat the rampaging demon Yamata-no-Orochi. When cutting off one of the demon's tails, the sword became notched. The demon's bodily remains became the Kusanagi Sword, which Susano-o gave to his sister goddess Amaterasu as compensation for the damaged Tōtsuka she had originally lent him. As the Kusanagi became one of the Imperial Regalia of Japan, the Tōtsuka was discarded and largely forgotten. The sword grew resentful, and invited the spirit of the Yamata-no-Orochi to inhabit it as a vessel, becoming a cursed sword.

According to Leonardo Hamato's research in Chapter 22: *The Witch-Hunt of a Bloodline*, the Tōtsuka Sword's first wielder after being cursed was a person named Morinaga, who proved immune to the sword's curse. Morinaga tried to exorcise the demon Yamata-no-Orochi from the sword, but failed, in the process binding the demon's life force to Morinaga's bloodline and sharing in the same divine protection that protected Morinaga from the curse.

According to Karai, the Tōtsuka became a prized possession of the Foot Clan—a symbolic weapon of mass destruction that inspired fear in their enemies but was simultaneously too dangerous to ever be used. The sword was wrapped in a shroud and tended only by priests who were forbidden to see it or touch it. This made it relatively easy for Oroku Saki—the Shredder—to steal the sword and replace it with a replica. Karai theorizes that Saki was already so full of hate that he was effectively immune to the sword's curse. Saki attempted to use the sword to destroy his rival and Hamato Splinter's master Hamato Yoshi, by anonymously mailing it to him as a package. But one of the postal workers delivering the package became infected by the sword's curse, and kept the package at his home, becoming a mail hoarder over the years. Meanwhile, Saki ended the feud on his own by killing Yoshi and Tang Shen in person.

Eventually, the postal worker was arrested and his hoarded mail confiscated. But the now-undeliverable Tōtsuka package came into the possession of Eikichi Gotoh, one of the Shredder's surviving Foot Elites. Knowing that Splinter and his sons lived somewhere in the sewers of Brooklyn, Eikichi anonymously dropped the package into the sewer so they could eventually discover it.

The Tōtsuka's final moments are portrayed in the Prologue, when the sword's curse infects brothers Raphael and Leonardo Hamato and their father Splinter, and Splinter sacrifices his own life helping Leo destroy the sword.

Both Splinter's body and the remains of the Tōtsuka Sword collapse into a pile of ashes, which Donatello gathers into an urn. Though Donnie never wielded the sword as a weapon, he becomes infected with the curse as well. This is initially only hinted at, but Chapter 18: *A Little Deeper in Donatello's World* tells the story of Donnie's deteriorating mental illness, and the end of Chapter 19: *Fragments of Truth Inside His Mind* reveals that the skeleton of Splinter's failed clone is itself actually a cursed object like the Tōtsuka Sword, when Donnie hugs the skeleton and half of his head becomes covered with the same supernatural energy veins where his head touches the skeleton.

According to Karai's story, when the Kusanagi turned into dust and blew away, the Foot Clan knew that the Kusanagi's essence had returned to Yamata-no-Orochi to prepare the demon for reawakening, which could only happen if the Tōtsuka had been destroyed. It is only then that the Foot discovered that their Tōtsuka Sword had been replaced by a replica, and from there they managed to learn Saki and Eikichi's roles in trafficking the sword, and launched a mission to exterminate the Morinaga Bloodline as the only certain way to permanently kill the demon and prevent its return. But it isn't until the Foot encounter Leonardo later in Japan that they learn that it was the Hamato Clan who destroyed the sword.