Why does Kakashi Hatake always wear a mask?


Since his childhood as depicted in manga/anime, Kakashi always wore a cloth
mask covering his face, making only eye(s) and a portion of forehead visible.

What was the reason for this?




I have collected a few reasons, which are actually assumptions..

  * Because he was an ANBU. All the members of ANBU wear masks for various reasons. (hiding their identity, their feelings, expression, and so on, making them merely fighting robots) 

  * Since his childhood days, he always was looked down on by the villagers because his father sacrificed a mission in order to save his comrades. This resulted in a huge loss to the village (maybe in terms of reputation and economy). He wanted to hide himself.

  * Moreover, people could easily mistake him for his father since they look similar (one example: Lady Chio attacking Kakashi Hatake because she mistook him for his father Sakumo). He tried to hide himself with his mask, though people vaguely remember it since a generation has been passed.

Though all the above reasons aren't really valid now (in both the anime and
manga), Kakashi still wears mask, for which the reason is unknown.

  * Just an idea Kishi had. And here is a piece of information from a blog:

> In an interview the question, "Why does Kakashi wear a mask?" was asked.
> Kishimoto's reply was that he saw ninjas as being "mysterious" or something,
> so in his character design he made Kakashi wear a mask, but he didn't do
> that with other characters because it's too difficult to get their
> expressions down when you can't see their entire face.

Blog link: [[click
here]](http://www.narutoforums.com/archive/index.php/t-16983.html)




I have collected a few reasons, which are actually assumptions..

  * Because he was an ANBU. All the members of ANBU wear masks for various reasons. (hiding their identity, their feelings, expression, and so on, making them merely fighting robots) 

  * Since his childhood days, he always was looked down on by the villagers because his father sacrificed a mission in order to save his comrades. This resulted in a huge loss to the village (maybe in terms of reputation and economy). He wanted to hide himself.

  * Moreover, people could easily mistake him for his father since they look similar (one example: Lady Chio attacking Kakashi Hatake because she mistook him for his father Sakumo). He tried to hide himself with his mask, though people vaguely remember it since a generation has been passed.

Though all the above reasons aren't really valid now (in both the anime and
manga), Kakashi still wears mask, for which the reason is unknown.

  * Just an idea Kishi had. And here is a piece of information from a blog:

> In an interview the question, "Why does Kakashi wear a mask?" was asked.
> Kishimoto's reply was that he saw ninjas as being "mysterious" or something,
> so in his character design he made Kakashi wear a mask, but he didn't do
> that with other characters because it's too difficult to get their
> expressions down when you can't see their entire face.

Blog link: [[click
here]](http://www.narutoforums.com/archive/index.php/t-16983.html)

