Shingen Yashida had no superhuman abilities but was in peak physical condition and was one of the finest swordsman in all of Japan. Highly intelligent, Shingen had extensive knowledge of human anatomy, pressure points, and also great knowledge of poisons and assassination techniques. He was highly skilled in the management of criminal organizations and very well connected in the international criminal underworld, particularly in areas of drug traffic.

Shingen was a Japanese Yakuza crime boss who disgraced his family name by turning his clan into a criminal empire. He was the father of Wolverine's fiancee, Mariko Yashida. He had an illegitimate son named Keniuchio Harada who was a mutant and came to be known as the Silver Samurai.

Shingen Harada forced Mariko Yashida to marry another criminal boss who beat her nearly to death. When Wolverine found out about this he confronted Shingen. Shingen then had Wolverine poisoned, temporarily greatly weakening him so that he could beat and humiliate the superhuman mutant in a duel with bokken in front of Mariko.

Shingen used his expert knowledge of human anatomy to secretly attack Wolverine's nerve endings in such a way so as to make the duel life-threatening. However, as Mariko did not know this when Wolverine attempted to use his claws against Shingen to save his own life it appeared to Mariko that he was cheating in the duel. Mariko did not know that Wolverine's body had been saturated with enough lethal poison to kill several dozen ordinary men, or that Shingen was the one who was actually cheating in the duel. This had the effect of disgracing Wolverine in front of his lover, which was the design of Shingen.

Wolverine then completely destroyed the Yashida criminal empire. When Wolverine confronted Shingen a second time, Shingen did not survive. Mariko Yashida and Wolverine however, did not marry; Mariko was at that time being controlled by the villain Mastermind, who was conducting a revenge campaign on the X-Men. She succeeded her father in command of the clan.