Yasuke ‘the Black Samurai’ has been everywhere for the last two years or so after it was announced that he would feature as a playable character in the game ‘Assassin's Creed: Shadows’ from Ubisoft.
This Afrocentric inclusion was bizarre to say the very least as Yasuke isn’t a remotely important figure in Japanese history let alone a particularly interesting one, but never-the-less we were going to be treated to a black samurai in sixteenth century Japan which – like things like the Netflix series ‘Bridgerton’ and the BBC’s recent the ‘Anglo-Saxons were black’ historical travesty ‘King & Conqueror’ – would mean that in short order blacks would be claiming they ‘were the real samurai’ and all sorts of assorted ahistorical nonsense.
However it began to emerge over time that this was actually far more malicious than just companies ‘going woke’ before they ‘went broke’, because it turned out that Ubisoft’s interest in – and professed belief in the importance of – Yasuke in Japanese history was sparked by a 2017 book by the academic historian Thomas Lockley – who for some reason was given a co-writer named Geoffrey Girard by his publisher [presumably because his prose was just awful] – titled ‘Yasuke: The True Story of the Legendary African Samurai’ (alternatively ‘African Samurai’) which claimed to be a historical biography for Yasuke.
The thing is that Lockley’s book was – and is - almost complete historical nonsense as the Japanese website ‘Way of Bushido’ explains and which I quote at length for the reader’s clarity on the issue:
‘Yasuke arrived in Japan in 1579 in service of the Italian Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano, who had been appointed the Visitor (inspector) of the Jesuit missions in the Indies (East Africa, South and East Asia). He accompanied Valignano when the latter came to the Kyoto area in March 1581 and his appearance caused a lot of interest with the local people.
According to Histoire ecclésiastique des isles et royaumes du Japon, written by François Solier of the Society of Jesus in 1627, Yasuke was likely from Mozambique however this is not confirmed.
When Yasuke was presented to Oda Nobunaga, the Japanese Daimyō thought that his skin must have been coloured with black ink. Nobunaga had him strip from the waist up and made him scrub his skin. These events are recorded in a 1581 letter of the Jesuit Luís Fróis to Lourenço Mexia, and in the 1582 Annual Report of the Jesuit Mission in Japan, also by Fróis.
These accounts were also published in Cartas que os padres e irmãos da Companhia de Jesus escreverão dos reynos de Japão e China II (1598), normally known simply as Cartas.
"When Nobunaga realized that the African's skin was indeed black, he took an interest in him."
According to a Japanese accounting of Yaskue states: "On the 23rd of the 2nd month [23 March 1581], a black page came from the Christian countries. The man was healthy with a good demeanour and Nobunaga praised Yasuke's strength.
Some say that Yasuke could speak or was taught Japanese, and it is stated Nobunaga enjoyed talking with him. However, it is more likely that a Jesuit missionary translated for them, in order to control the dialogue as they were not ones to miss an opportunity to interact with Nobunaga in order to advance their mission.
Reportedly, Nobunaga's nephew gave him a sum of money at this first meeting, for his travels, and on 14 May, Yasuke departed for Echizen Province with Fróis and the other Christians.
During this trip, they met local warlords such as Shibata Katsutoyo, Hashiba Hidekatsu, and Shibata Katsuie, They returned to Kyoto on 30 May.
At some point, although when is not exactly clear, Yasuke entered Nobunaga's service.
Yasuke was also mentioned in the prototype of Shinchō ki owned by Sonkeikaku Bunko , the archives of the Maeda clan.
According to this, the black man named Yasuke was given his own residence and a short, ceremonial katana by Nobunaga. Nobunaga also assigned him the duty of weapon bearer (much to the annoyance of actual samurai)
Here is where the facts morph from what is known, to what is "wished for"...
Nobunaga had a propensity for the unique, and he was particularly interested in all things foreign. Clearly he was fascinated by Yasuke, and this was documented to be to the chagrin of many of his top generals such as Akechi Mitsuhide, who is reported to have been disgusted by the site of Yasuke, and saw him as nothing more than a wild beast.
After the Battle of Tenmokuzan, Nobunaga led his force, including Yasuke, and inspected the former territory of the Takeda clan. So people make the assumption that Yasuke actually fought in this battle, and that he donned Samurai armor and fought valiantly as a samurai hero.
Fact check: A sword bearer stays behind with the general camp, near to the lord, they don't go out on the battlefield, and there is ABSOLUTELY POSITVELY NO RECORD OF YASUKE FIGHTING IN ANY BATTLE!
There is also NO RECORD of Yasuke receiving martial arts training, or use of the Japanese sword, either when in the service of Nobunaga or the years prior.
The truth is that his time with Nobunaga was limited, as they first met in 1581 and Oda Nobunaga was dead a year later. This is hardly enough time for Yasuke to be trained to be the great warrior all the Waukanda dreamers want him to be.
Yasuke as a Samurai?
Sadly, for either commercial purpose, or some social equity rationale, some people attempt to equate Yasuke as a non Japanese Samurai in the same way the English sailor William Adams (Pilot) was later viewed.
However Adams was actually presented Samurai status, and there is no record of Yasuke being bestowed similar Samurai status. The FACTs are that Oda Nobunaga made him a servant for a few months.
A few months... not a lifetime of service dedicated to serving his lord, ready to give his life in the service of the Oda.
Another fact that is clear; Yasuke was kept around as talking piece, an oddity for Nobunaga to show off, much in the same way he enjoyed irking other Daimyo by showing them Azai Nagamasa's gold plated skull.
Fate of Yasuke
They say that Yasuke was present at Honnoji and took part in the fighting that lead to Nobunagas death.
However it is recorded that perhaps only a single individual from the Oda survived the Honnoji incident and it wasn't Yaskuke.
Yasuke was alleged to have been taken by Mitsuhide troops soon after the Honnoji incident, but Akechi had his men return him to the Christian missionaries stating that you don't kill the beast, for the fault of his master.
Was he an Honorable Samurai?
Despite modern romanticized versions of Yasuke, if he was this great Samurai some would have you believe, then it stands to reason that he would have either fought to the death at Honnoji, or at the very least he would have committed Seppuku.
Nope.... didn't happen.
Or if he was an honorable Samurai like the 47 Ronin, at the very least he would have begged to join Hideyoshi in the fight against Mitsuhide and gotten revenge.... don't you think?
Nope, didn't happen
All that is known about the fate of Yaskue , is that he was seen with the Christian Missionaries after Nobunagas death and reportedly fled the country soon after.
So while people may attempt to romanticize the story of Yasuke to suit their agenda, the truth is that such blatantly false attempts to rewrite history are pure revisionism and nothing more.’ (1)
And Daniel Manning in the Japanese newspaper ‘Japan Forward’ agrees citing recent academic research which completely debunks Lockley’s claims as at best rubbish history written for profit and at worst deliberate academic deception:
‘Yasuke's story has only begun to attract significant attention in the West over the past decade. Any notable interest emerged at most 20 years ago. In these tellings, Yasuke is often described as a "real-life Black samurai who served under Oda Nobunaga," a barrier-breaking hero in 16th-century Japan. Such portrayals, however, have relied on sparse evidence. Yasuke's life in Japan is poorly documented, appearing only in a handful of contemporary sources. These include the Shinchokoki (Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga) and the diary of Nobunaga's retainer, Matsudaira Ietada.
Rather than treating this scant evidence with caution, many writers have filled the gaps with speculation. As Naude points out, Western researchers "frequently insert assumptions that reflect contemporary concerns rather than historical realities" when discussing Yasuke. In other words, modern ideals and imagination have been projected onto a figure who flickers only briefly in the historical record.
One example lies in the very title "samurai." In Japan's Sengoku period, samurai were not simply fighters but an officially recognized class of warriors. Usually, they were granted hereditary surnames, stipends, and retainers of their own. The popular idea that Nobunaga formally made Yasuke a samurai rests on later accounts rather than clear contemporaneous evidence.
Yasuke is not mentioned by name in the earliest Western accounts from the 16th century. Jesuit missionaries such as Luis Frois and Lorenzo Mexia, who were active during Nobunaga's era, refer instead to a black African figure using the Portuguese term Cafre.
In Japanese translations of these reports, however, Cafre is rendered as 黒奴 (kuroyatsu or kokudo, meaning "black slave"). This emphasizes Yasuke's race and status over his individual identity. It suggests he was viewed more as a background presence than a figure of personal significance.
Yet over time, especially in English-language retellings, these references have been "reinterpreted to support contemporary narratives of identity and cultural symbolism." In short, Yasuke's story has been retold to fit a modern desire for a historical black hero in samurai Japan. Naude calls this narrative "mythologized."
Crucially, Alaric Naude's new research delves into discrepancies between different manuscripts of the Nobunaga chronicle. It shows how Yasuke's legend evolved through retelling. Japanese scholars have long known that not all historical manuscripts are equal. The chronicle exists in several versions. Earlier manuscripts closer to Nobunaga's time tend to be more sober and factual. Later copies from the Edo period (1600-1868, decades after Nobunaga's death) show signs of embellishment.
Naude's study identifies the Ikeda-bon manuscript (an early version of the Shinchokoki) as "the most accurate source for understanding Sengoku history," given its proximity to the original events.
By contrast, a later version, known as the Sonkeikaku-bon, was compiled in the Edo period under the Tokugawa shogunate and is "laden with Tokugawa-era embellishments." Unfortunately, many Western accounts drew from this embellished version. This was partly because it was among the first to be translated into English in modern times.
What kind of embellishments? The Sonkeikaku text paints a dramatic picture of Yasuke's introduction to Nobunaga. It records that after meeting the warlord, "the black man was granted a stipend and given the name Yasuke (弥助). Furthermore, he was entrusted with a scabbard (dagger) ... and even a personal residence." In this version, Nobunaga marvels at Yasuke's strength and appearance. Additionally, he rewards him with property, a ceremonial sword, and official employment.
However, Naude's study urges caution: these vivid details do not appear in the earlier Ikeda manuscript at all. In fact, neither does the name "Yasuke." They seem to have been added by later scribes or editors, reflecting Edo-period storytelling rather than Sengoku-period reality. In the Ikeda version — favored by Japanese historians — Yasuke is described as a foreign attendant of Nobunaga. He is noted for his dark skin and impressive physique, but there is no mention of any grand conferral of rank.
The new research argues that the "receiving of [a] wakizashi (short sword), stipend and housing" for Yasuke is likely "an artifact of later political writing rather than a reflection of Sengoku reality." In simpler terms, Edo-period writers wove the idea that Nobunaga made Yasuke a samurai into the historical record. Many modern commentators then took that story at face value.
Beyond parsing manuscripts, historians also look at naming conventions and social context to gauge Yasuke's status. Here, too, the evidence undermines the samurai narrative. Samurai of that era were always given a family name (姓) upon receiving their rank. In feudal Japan, this was a mark of honor and identification.
Yet no historical record ever attributes a surname to Yasuke. He is referred to simply by a given name, which itself appears in varying kanji forms as if it were a phonetic nickname. "The complete lack of any such surname in any historical record related to Yasuke is highly unusual," the study notes. This absence "casts significant doubt on claims that he was formally enfeoffed as a samurai."
If Nobunaga had officially made Yasuke a samurai, we would expect to see a proper Japanese surname in the historical record. That was the customary practice for foreigners who were naturalized into the warrior class.
Moreover, the name "Yasuke" itself is telling. Far from sounding like a lofty warrior's appellation, it follows a pattern common among servants or lower-ranking retainers of the time. Most samurai of status had two-character or three-character names, often including their clan or origin. However, Yasuke's name – written with characters meaning "Ya" and "suke" – is different. It fits the mold of "lower-class or servant names of the period."
Such names with the -suke suffix were typically used by attendants or common soldiers, not elite samurai. As the study observes, if Yasuke had truly been elevated to samurai status, we would expect a more formal name or title to appear in records. "Yet no such record exists," Naude observes.
Taken together – the absence of a surname, the humble style of his given name, and the fact that lavish rewards appear only in suspect later texts – the scholarly evidence strongly suggests Yasuke was never recognized as a samurai. He was undoubtedly a person of great interest to Nobunaga. Moreover, he did serve in Nobunaga's entourage in 1581–1582, likely as a retainer or bodyguard. But there is no contemporaneous evidence that Nobunaga conferred samurai rank upon Yasuke. In the words of the study's author, all signs point to Yasuke's recorded name being "an informal or practical designation rather than an official warrior title."’ (2)
My point here isn’t to bore you with the details of late medieval Japanese history – as interesting as they can be – but rather to point out that Lockley should have never written let alone published ‘Yasuke’ at all, because it should have failed his publisher’s peer review – this is a standard check to make sure publishers don’t get caught out publishing junk – but yet it did.
What is perhaps even more interesting is that while Lockley originally just seemed to be an ‘English professor’ it turns out he is actually jewish; since in a video interview he proudly discussed how his maternal grandfather was a jewish lawyer in the Weimar Germany during the 1920s and how his family fled to England before the Second World War because they were jewish. (3)
This makes Lockley jewish by Israeli law as well as potentially halakhah as well, which is interesting since – as I have discussed elsewhere – the creators of modern Afrocentric history (i.e., ‘We Wuz Egyptians’) were also two jews named Martin Bernal and Melville Herskowits. (4)
This means that in essence the origins of the myth of Yasuke ‘the Black Samurai’ are the same as the origins of myth that Cleopatra was a black woman – she was in fact Greek – in so far as they are both myths created and spread by jews.
An interesting coincidence: no?
References
(1) https://wayofbushido.com/bushido-blog/f/the-bogus-story-of-yasuke-wokeness-revisionist-history
(2) https://japan-forward.com/unraveling-yasuke-new-research-challenges-the-black-samurai-legend/
(3) The video was uploaded here: https://x.com/politicalawake/status/1814657031254458774 also see my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/is-thomas-lockley-jewish
(4) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/martin-bernal-and-melville-herskowits