Yasuke was tall and used his military experience to detect risks for the Jesuits as they formed alliances with local warlords, says Lockley. Kano Soshu via wikimedia commonsīut even his ascent did not stop minor warlords and bands of radical armed monks and bandits vying for territory, according to Lockley. Nobunaga Oda was considered the most powerful warlord in Japan. He controlled Kyoto, the dominant center of the country, and is viewed as one of Japan’s three unifiers along with Ieyasu Tokugawa and Hideyoshi Toyotomi. Nobunaga Oda became the most powerful among them. The period – known as the “ era of warring states” – saw hundreds of strongmen from mini-states across the country battling for power.Ī semblance of peace was restored when the remaining local feudal warlords, or “daimyo,” sought to unify Japan. When he arrived in Japan, the country was embroiled in a brutal civil war that ended only in 1603. Valignano, who had spent six years traveling from Rome via countries such as Portugal, Mozambique, India, Malaya and Macau, hoped to convert thousands of Japanese to Christianity. The pair and their entourage arrived by ship in 1579 at the port of Kuchinotsu in Nagasaki, on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, according to Lockley. It’s where Lockley speculates that Yasuke met Alessandro Valignano, the most powerful Jesuit missionary of the day in Asia, who made him his valet and bodyguard. He likely worked as a slave and trained as a child soldier who fought in Gujarat and Goa in India, before being hired as a valet by Jesuit missionaries from Portugal.Īt the time, Goa was a prime trading, missionary and military center for the Portuguese in India, and one of the largest centers of the African slave trade.Ī Portuguese black ship arrives in Japan from Goa and Macau. Lockley suspects that Yasuke was abducted from his family as a child by Arab or Indian slave traders and trafficked through Arab countries and across the Indian Ocean. While some researchers believe he was from Mozambique, others suggest Sudan. Yasuke’s origins remain a mystery as historical sources are scant. Lockley says his story has reemerged just as homogenous Japan reexamines the concept of multiculturalism in the run-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Today, Yasuke’s legacy as the world’s first African samurai is well known in Japan, spawning everything from prize-winning children’s books to a manga series titled “Afro Samurai.”Īnd his legacy continues to spread worldwide.Įarlier this month, “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman announced he would play Yasuke in a Hollywood movie scripted by “Narcos” co-creator Doug Miro. Nobunaga soon made him a samurai – even providing him with his own servant, house and stipend, according to Jesuit records. In an era racked by political espionage, merciless assassinations and ninja attacks, Yasuke was seen as an asset. Once convinced Yasuke was real, he immediately threw a feast in his honor, says Lockley. He tried to rub the pigment from Yasuke’s skin, believing it was black ink. Oda believed Yasuke to be either a guardian demon or “Daikokuten,” a god of prosperity usually represented by black statues in temples. People wanted to see him and be in his presence,” says Lockley, who spent nine years researching and writing the book, which was published last month. “When Yasuke got to Kyoto (with Jesuit missionaries), there was a massive riot. And like the locals in Japan’s then-capital of Kyoto, he was awed by Yasuke’s height, build and skin tone, according to Thomas Lockley, the author of “African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan.” When feudal Japan’s most powerful warlord Nobunaga Oda met Yasuke, a black slave-turned-retainer, in 1581, he believed the man was a god.
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