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 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. © Lord Shingen