YASUKE THE AFRICAN SAMURAI

BY MAX MOSES 

Yasuke is a Japanese name used to refer to a black (African).

Yasuke worked for the japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga as his bodyguard and then was granted the prestigious rank of Samurai. He was described in The “Lord Nobunaga Chronicle” (Shinchōkōki) has a description of Yasuke’s first meeting with Nobunaga. “On the 23rd of the 2nd month March 23, 1581, a black page (“kuro-bōzu”) came from the Christian countries. He looked about 26 24 or 25 by Western count or 27 years old; his entire body was black like that of an ox. The man was healthy and good-looking. Moreover, his strength was greater than that of 10 men.” After Matsudaira Ietada had met Yasuke in May 1582, Ietada journalized his looks. ” His name was Yasuke. His height was 6 shaku 2 sun (6 ft. 2 in., or 188 cm.). He was black, and his skin was like charcoal.” If so, his tall stature would have been very imposing to the Japanese of the day. And he was affluent in several languages including japanese which bolsterd along with his size and strength to warlord Nobunaga. Yasuke became a permanent fixture in Nobunaga’s retinue, his size and strength acting as a deterrent to assassination not to mention a flavour of exoticism.Apparently Nobunaga became so fond of Yasuke that rumours abounded that the former slave was going to be made a Daimyo (a Japanese land-owning lord). Yasuke was given the honour of being made a member of the samurai class, a rare honour among foreigners.

In the  late 16th century a young African warrior from Mozambique assisted in the unification of Japan as a samurai to the historic warlord Oda Nobunaga (1534 – 1582).Yasuke was his Japanese name and he is mentioned in the 1581 letters of the Jesuits Luis Frois and Lorenço Mexia and in the 1582 Annual Report of the Jesuit Mission in Japan.

The “Lord Nobunaga Chronicle” (Shinchōkōki) has a description of Yasuke’s first meeting with Nobunaga. The compiled chronicle consists of 16 volumes and is considered “mostly factual” and “reliable”. Chicago-based producer Floyd Webb (The Search for Count Dante, 2014) and Tokyo-based producer Deborah Ann DeSnoo (Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire, 2004) have formed a partnership to re-capture the lost histories of global cross-cultural interaction, 16th century Jesuit missionaries and the forging of a unified Japanese nation.