The idea of the Black Samurai is a popular concept and a powerful motif in the popular imagination.
It took root in the 50s, 60s, and 70s when Japanese martial arts first entered the American consciousness and many of those who took up these fighting arts were African American. They were attracted to the physical skills the arts such as Karate and Judo taught, but they were also attracted to the mindset of Bushido – the code of the warrior. It’s common to believe that the idea of a Black samurai first began here. But this is not true.
The first Black samurai in history lived over 400 years ago in Japan, in the actual heyday of the samurai.
According to historical records, a man of black African descent entered the service of the Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga in the late 1500s. He fought in Nobunaga’s army from 1581 to 1582 and became an official samurai under the warlord. His original African name is unknown, but Japanese records indicate that he was known as Yasuke. This is his story.
The specifics of where Yasuke came from is unclear. The time that he lived and served Nobunaga was the tail end of what is known as the Sengoku Jidai – or the Warring States Period. This is the period of about 150 years in Japanese history when central, imperial authority broke down, and the country had broken up into power blocs ruled over by virtually independent warlords, or daimyo, for ultimate control of Japan. Oda Nobunaga would be the first of three of the most powerful daimyo who would ultimately reunite Japan. Those to come after Nobunaga would be Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and then Tokugawa Ieyasu. The latter would ultimately succeed and create the last final shogunate (the Tokugawa Shogunate) before the modern era.
But Nobunaga paved the way. It was a time of constant warfare and a time when foreign ideas were not rejected – as long as it helped the particular warlord achieve success on the battlefield. Same for foreign people. This was the environment that we find the first mention of Yasuke.
He may have come from the area that is modern Mozambique, or Angola, or Ethiopia. Exactly how he entered Nobunaga’s service is also unclear. This is not too surprising, given that it was a time of constant warfare and lots of records were lost or destroyed. Nonetheless, he quickly became Nobunaga’s chief warrior and a personal bodyguard before officially becoming a samurai in 1581.
There are, to say the least, several versions of his story. One version of the story is that he was from a part of East Africa that was under Portuguese control. The land that is now known as Mozambique was the capital of Portuguese East Africa so it’s not hard to imagine that he may have originated there. He is supposed to have “worked” for a Jesuit priest named Alessandro Valignano – and although there’s no actual evidence of it, given the time and place it’s very possible that he was actually a slave of the priest.
Portugal had a trading position in Japan during the time of the Sengoku Jidai. In fact, it was the Portuguese who introduced firearms and supplied much of the gunpowder weapons to the various daimyos during the 1500s. This interest in western weapons technology by the Japanese warlords gave the Portuguese a way into the rather opaque country and it also gave Catholic missionaries a way in to preach and spread Christianity. Most likely for this reason Valignano was sent to Japan in 1579, and the man who would come to be called Yasuke accompanied him there.
It was written in a 1581 letter and a 1582 Annual Report of the Jesuit Mission in Japan by the Jesuit Luís Fróis, that when they arrived, the appearance of a dark skinned man over six feet tall drew quite an attention. Such a sight was unknown in Japan and large crowds formed around him. The crowds and the ruckus was to the point that the local warlord – Oda Nobunaga – summoned the pair to his castle to examine the situation himself.
Story goes that Nobunaga was skeptical of the reality of the color of the African’s skin and tried to have his servants scrub the “ink” off. When he realized that the tall man truly did have dark colored skin, Nobunaga apparently became fascinated with him, and through some unspecified series of events took him from the Jesuit priest’s custody.
Nobunaga, who was impressed with Yasuke’s intimidating stature, strength, and demeanor, recruited him into his service as a bodyguard. Supposedly it was Nobunaga himself who gave the African bodyguard the name “Yasuke”.
According to the Lord Nobunaga Chronicle (信長公記 Shinchō Kōki);
“On the 23rd of the 2nd month [March 23, 1581], a black page (黒坊主 kuro-bōzu) came from the Christian countries. The man was healthy and good-looking with a good demeanour. Moreover, Nobunaga praised Yasuke’s strength, describing it as that of ten normal men. Nobunaga’s nephew gave him a sum of money at this first meeting.”
Historical records don’t indicate it, but it’s likely that Yasuke was either fluent in or at the very least, could speak considerable Japanese. How, given his short time in Japan before he became part of Nobunaga’s retinue? The running theory is that it was probably due to Valignano’s efforts to ensure that his missionaries adapted to the local culture faster and better. At the very least, we know Yasuke had long conversations with Nobunaga because apparently he greatly enjoyed speaking with his new samurai. And given that Nobunaga would not have known Portuguese, and Yasuke would not have known classical Chinese (the lingua franca of Asia at the time), it’s most likely that Yasuke spoke Japanese and adapted to Japanese customs quite readily.
This is important because it can explain how he rose so quickly and to such heights. According to the archives of the Maeda clan, Yasuke was given his own residence and his own katana as well as being given the duty of being Nobunaga’s weapon bearer, a pretty significant posting at the time. He became one of Nobunaga’s most trusted servants, riding into battle alongside him, and even dining with him, a privilege reserved for only his most favored samurai.
Unfortunately, the glory days would not last. In 1582, just three years after Yasuke had first arrived in Japan, one of Nobunaga’s generals, Akechi Mitsuhide, took advantage of the warlord’s out-of-town trip to a temple in Kyoto to stage a coup.
Mitsuhide stormed the Honno-ji temple that Nobunaga was staying at the time, and Nobunaga, seeing that he would not be able to fight of the traitorous general, committed seppuku, or ritual suicide. It’s written that Yasuke was with Nobunaga when we died. Ever the loyal retainer, immediately after Nobunaga’s death, Yasuke went to the lodging of Nobunaga’s son and heir, Oda Nobutada to bring him to Nijo Castle for protection. However, either they were ambushed on the way, or they made it to the castle but were overrun anyway. Either way, the battle against Mitsuhide was lost, and Oda Nobutada also committed seppuku rather than surrender his sword to the general. Yasuke did not commit seppuku but was captured by Mitsuhide’s forces.
When the general’s troops brought Yasuke to him and asked what to do, Mitsuhide ordered that the black samurai be sent back down to the “temple of the southern barbarians” – that is, the church of the Jesuits. Depending on the version of events, Mitsuhide did his because he either took pity on Yasuke saying that the foreigner wasn’t Japanese and never understood Japanese ways, or he did it for diplomatic reasons because he didn’t want to poison his relations with the Portuguese and Jesuit missionaries. After all, he may need them later to supply him with weapons when it was his time to try to unify Japan.
Regardless of the reason, Yasuke returned to the service of the Jesuits. We don’t know what happened to him after that. The Sengoku Jidai wasn’t over and Japan wouldn’t really be unified and all the civil wars wouldn’t really end until the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and the Siege of Osaka Castle in 1615 cemented the Tokugawa Shogunate. And because there were still another 20-30 years of fighting left to go, records got destroyed and the era is just poorly documented. We’re left with myths and legends to fill in the gaps.
But the story of Yasuke isn’t forgotten. In March 2017, Lionsgate announced that it was adapting Yasuke’s life into a movie. “Highlander” creator Gregory Widen will write the script, although it’s currently unclear who will direct, or who will star as the legendary Samurai. But in a couple of years the world may rediscover the story of Yasuke and the legend of the world’s first black samurai on the silver screen.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuke
https://thedailybeagle.net/2013/03/07/yasuke-the-african-samurai/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-samurai-japan-lionsgate_us_58dae1e6e4b0cb23e65c5319
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRnfzpSBTIy/
http://www.ozy.com/flashback/the-incredible-legend-of-the-first-black-samurai/76208
http://yasuke-san.com/yasuke-from-africa-to-japan-in-the-16th-century/
https://m.thevintagenews.com/2017/05/21/yasuke-the-first-non-japanese-samurai-was-an-african-slave/
https://omgfacts.com/this-is-the-story-of-the-forgotten-black-samurai-4ccabec3c5de
http://www.konbini.com/us/entertainment/yasuke-black-samurai-movie/