Yasuke

My 17 year old requested the book for one of his summer readings. He is enjoying the book and often shares the wonderful African history he is learning. One of the interesting points he shared with me was how some Asian cultures noted the difference in the color of complexions of people from the continent of Africa just as an observation and revering it! Period. I reiterated to him that when you are comfortable with who you are and what your are doing in life, then you are not threatened by the existence of others who look different and what they accomplish.

So far, I like learning about Feudal Japan and also learn about Yasuke too. At first, when I heard about Yasuke I thought he was a fictional character. I'm glad I was wrong once I started learning more about him. Now to have a book about him; that's even better.

I liked how the author tied in Yasuke’s story, his contributions and relevance to what was happening in Japanese history during his existence. Unfortunately, it appeared that information on the African samurai was so sparse the author had to fill in the “gaps” with educated guesses. That was a bit of a let down but the author appears to know his stuff. My main reason for giving 4 stars is because I felt the book was more about Nobunaga then Yasuke.

"True story" 🤣 it's pure fiction. This specific "character" and story was proven as a fake, a ploy. There never were "black" sub Saharan African Samurai, not a single one. At the time of the Samurai there weren't but even a few sub Saharan Africans within the whole of Japan and they weren't allowed any positions of authority or importance. This fictional book was even promoted by wall Street journal? We Wuzzery bingo has gone mainstream 🤣🤣🤣

Tons of baseless claims, frequently make up or exaggerated information. Convenient that most can't read Japanese

"Yasuke" the "legendary samurai" is a character so obscure that he is less than a footnote in period accounts. He spent a grand total of three years in Japan, two years as the manservant of a Portuguese missionary and one as an entertainer/servant/human oddity at the court of Oda Nobunaga. Contrary to the author's deranged claims, the warlord's interest was not piqued by Yasuke's fighting abilities, but rather by his complexion. Yasuke was of east African origin and darker hued than any man the daimyo had seen before (so much so that Nobunaga had him repeatedly washed and scrubbed in front of his other courtiers to confirm that his coloration was natural and not a dye/tattoo). After forcibly appropriating Yasuke from his former employer, Nobunaga granted his captive an apartment, a small allowance and a ceremonial shortsword (the entire basis for the author's "samurai" claims). As far as can be discerned, Yasuke never fought for Nobunaga (which is unsurprising, considering he had no military training and spoke no Japanese) and spent most of his presumably very confusing year in Nobunaga's service being gawked at by other noblemen and serving as a porter/valet during Nobunaga's final campaign. In the end, Yasuke escaped his lord's fate the same way he entered it, due to local prejudice. The warlord's successors, unsure whether Yasuke was even human, decided it would be dishonorable to kill him with the rest of the defeated warlord's household and simply let him go. At this point, he flees Japan and vanishes from history.So how did this interesting, but mostly sad, story get spun into the goofy hack and slash blacksploitation fantasy spun by Lockley? Well it makes a lot more sense when you look into the author's oddly vague CV. Rather than being a "historian" or even a "law professor" as he sometimes presents himself, Thomas Lockley is in fact an adjunct English professor at Nihon university, whose job it is to teach the English language to law students. Oddly (/s) Lockley is also a very vocal left-wing activist, who, while he may not know much about the history of his adoptive country, is very passionate about loosening its current immigration laws. Curious!

His book is based on poor research and pick up only useful fact to create a black samurai story. The author got kicked out from Japanese university, because of the lye and spreading that. Google Thomas Lockley, before reading the crap.

As documented in the Nobunaga family history, Yasuke was a koshō (小姓), a sword bearer. Basically a servant akin to a squire or a Porter, who would tend to Nobunaga’s armor and weapons, etc. the word for Samurai, 武士, never appears in conjunction with Yasuke’s name. Of additional note, the modern statue of Yasuke often depicted in social media was quite obviously made by someone who not only did not know Yasuke’s history, but who also was ignorant of Samurai culture. The statue shows dreadlocks. Had Yasuke been a Samurai as the myth states, he would have had a chonmage (丁髷), which was not a fashion choice, but a necessity in order to properly wear a kabuto (兜, 冑) helmet. Anyway, sword bearer, not Samurai, but an interesting tale nonetheless.