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Yasuke (Japanese: 弥助 / 弥介, pronounced [jasɯ̥ke]) was a man of African origin who served as a samurai [ 2 ][ 3 ] to the Japanese daimyō Oda Nobunaga between 1581 and 1582, during the Sengoku period, until Nobunaga's death in the Honnō-ji Incident. There are few historical documents on Yasuke.
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Not much is known about Yasuke’s early life. Some historians speculate he was born in Mozambique, Ethiopia or Nigeria. Thomas Lockley, co-author of African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan, says it’s possible Yasuke was enslaved and trafficked as a child but believes he was a free man by the time he met A...
Yasuke joined Nobunaga during the last months of the feudal lord’s unification campaign. “His strategy was to impose peace by force of arms,” Lockley says. “He would quite happily wipe out 10,000 people if he thought it would forward the aims of peace.” Though Nobunaga was close to completing his goal of consolidating control of Japan, his efforts ...
Despite the lack of concrete information about Yasuke, the samurai’s life has inspired a range of adaptations. In 1968, Japanese author Kurusu Yoshio published Kuro-suke, a children’s book that dramatizes Yasuke’s story. More recent titles about the warrior include Lockley’s 2019 book, co-written with Geoffrey Girard, and Jamal Turner’s 2020 childr...
Apr 30, 2021 · Much about him remains a mystery: it’s unconfirmed which country in Africa he hailed from, and there is no verifiable record of his life after 1582. But Yasuke was a real-life Black samurai who...
- Kat Moon
Aug 16, 2024 · The only report of Yasuke’s age is from Ōta’s Shinchōkōki (“The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga”), a biography of Nobunaga, which describes Yasuke in 1581 as being in his mid-20s, suggesting that his birth year was about 1555.
- Thomas Lockley
May 17, 2024 · Yasuke was a man of African origin who arrived in Japan in the late 16th century, and is widely held to have been the first and only black samurai (though not the only foreign samurai, lest we forget William Adams, the inspiration for Shōgun's John Blackthorne).
- Thomas Lockley
- 4 min
Sep 17, 2020 · He originally arrived on Japanese shores in 1579 as a bodyguard to Alessandro Valignano who’d been appointed to inspect the Jesuit missions in the Indies. A mysterious, muscular, six-foot-plus man from Africa, Yasuke earned celebrity-like status in Japan due to his unique appearance. List of Contents:
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Nov 7, 2023 · In the heart of feudal Japan, a unique figure emerged – Yasuke, the legendary black warrior. This African samurai, towering above his contemporaries with extraordinary physical stature and strength, created ripples in Japanese society upon his arrival.
