Yasuke

According to historical accounts, Yasuke first arrived in Japan in the service of Italian Jesuit Alessandro Valignano. Nobunaga summoned him out of a desire to see a black man. Yasuke accompanied Nobunaga until his death and fought at the Honnō-ji Incident until the death of Oda Nobutada. Afterwards, Yasuke was sent back to the Jesuits.

The earliest record of Yasuke dates to 1581. His birth name is unknown.

Based on Shinchō Kōki, Yasuke was estimated to be in his mid-twenties in 1581. Researcher Thomas Lockley has also proposed that Yasuke might have originated from the Dinka people of what is now South Sudan. and a later account from 1627 by François Solier refer to Yasuke as a Cafre. Solier further described Yasuke as a More Cafre, which has been interpreted as "Moorish infidel", and identified him as a servant from Mozambique. Due to these descriptions, some historians have suggested that Yasuke may have been Muslim.

Documented life in Japan

In 1579, Yasuke arrived in Japan in the service of the Italian Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano. Valignano had been appointed the Visitor (inspector) of the Jesuit missions in the Indies (which at that time meant East Africa, South, Southeast, and East Asia). Valignano's party spent the first two years of their stay in Japan, mainly in Kyushu. On 27 March 1581, Valignano, together with Luís Fróis, who had arrived in Japan earlier, had an audience with Nobunaga, and Yasuke is said to have accompanied them as an attendant.

The Jesuit Luís Fróis wrote that while in the capital, a melee broke out among the local townsfolk who fought amongst themselves to catch a glimpse of Yasuke, which resulted in the breaking down of the door of a Jesuit residence and a number of deaths and injuries among the Japanese. Fr. Organtino took Yasuke to Nobunaga, who upon seeing a black man for the first time, refused to believe that his skin color was natural and not applied later, and made him remove his clothes from the belt upwards. Nobunaga's children attended the event and one of his nephews gave Yasuke money.

The Shinchō Kōki manuscript describes Yasuke as follows:

Nobunaga was impressed by Yasuke and asked Valignano to give him over. accepted him as an attendant at his side and made him the first recorded foreigner to receive the rank of samurai. According to historian Jonathan López-Vera, he was occasionally allowed to share meals with the warlord, a privilege extended to few other vassals.

According to historians this was the equivalent to "the bestowing of warrior or 'samurai' rank" during this period. According to Lockley, Yasuke was also granted servants.

Father Lourenço Mexía wrote in a letter to Father Pero da Fonseca dated 8 October 1581:

Yasuke next appears in historical records on 11 May 1582. The Ietada Diary of Matsudaira Ietada, a vassal of Tokugawa Ieyasu, mentions that Yasuke accompanied Nobunaga on his inspection tour of the region after he destroyed his long-time arch-enemy, the Takeda clan of Kai.

On the same day, after his lord's death, Yasuke joined the forces of Nobutada, Nobunaga's eldest son and heir, who was garrisoned at the nearby Nijō-goshō imperial villa. They fought against the Akechi clan but were overwhelmed. Yasuke was captured by Mitsuhide's vassals, then sent to the Jesuits by Mitsuhide who suggested that because Yasuke was not Japanese, his life should be spared. It is certain that Yasuke did not die. Mitsuhide's vassals accompanied him to a Jesuit church, and Luís Fróis wrote five months after the Honnō-ji Incident thanking God that he did not lose his life.

Possible depictions of Yasuke Detail from the , drawn in 1605. It has been suggested that the dark-skinned man on the left is Yasuke. Sumō Yūrakuzu Byōbu

The , drawn in 1605 by an anonymous artist, depicts a dark-skinned man wrestling a Japanese man in the presence of noble samurai. There are various theories regarding the work: some believe that this samurai is Oda Nobunaga or Toyotomi Hidetsugu, while others believe that the dark-skinned man wrestling in the center is Yasuke and the one further to the right of the wrestlers (not depicted in the detailed image), playing the role of a gyōji (referee), is Oda Nobunaga.

Nanban byōbu (painted by Kano Naizen), Europeans and their African followers, c. 1600 Nanban byōbu

A Nanban byōbu painted by Kanō Naizen, a painter active in the same period, depicts dark-skinned followers holding parasols over Europeans as well as a spear. Yasuke inspired the 1971 satirical novel by Shūsaku Endō. Yasuke appears in the 2008 novel as one of the main characters. This novel was later made into a play in 2017.

Manga and anime Yasuke appears as Alessandro Valignano's servant in volume 29 of the ongoing manga series The Knife and the Sword by Takurō Kajikawa. The ongoing time-travel manga series Nobunaga Concerto by Ayumi Ishii portrays Yasuke as a black baseball player from the present day.

Film In March 2017, Lionsgate announced plans for a live-action film about Yasuke titled Black Samurai. In May 2019, Deadline reported that the film, retitled Yasuke, had left Lionsgate for Picturestart. Chadwick Boseman signed on to portray Yasuke. The project appears to have been cancelled after Boseman's death on August 28, 2020. As of May 2025, Picturestart's official website states that the film is "in development". In April 2019, MGM announced plans for their own live-action film about Yasuke, to be produced by Andrew Mittman and Lloyd Braun of Whalerock Industries, with a script written by Stuart C. Paul. The script was included in The Black List of most liked unproduced scripts for 2021. In the 2023 historical drama film Kubi directed by Takeshi Kitano, Yasuke, in another portrayal by Jun Soejima, served as a retainer to Oda Nobunaga. In April 2024, a new feature film spec script titled Black Samurai written by Blitz Bazawule was acquired by Warner Bros. for Bazawule to direct.

Video games Yasuke is a recurring minor character in Koei Tecmo's Nobunaga's Ambition series, appearing in the 1992 video game Nobunaga's Ambition: Tales of the Conquerors as a character added in the expansion pack, and returning in 2013's Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence as a recruitable officer. Koei Tecmo's 2017 video game Nioh and its 2020 sequel features a portrayal of Yasuke as a boss fight, Koei Tecmo's 2021 video game Samurai Warriors 5 includes Yasuke as a playable character, voiced by Paddy Ryan. A black samurai inspired by Yasuke, named Nagoriyuki, appears in Arc System Works' 2021 fighting game Guilty Gear Strive. Yasuke is one of the protagonists of Ubisoft's video game Assassin's Creed Shadows, voiced by Tongayi Chirisa.

Music In 2016, French electronic music producer Pépé Bradock released the track "Yazuke" on his label Atavisme. In February 2023, the Brazilian samba school Mocidade Alegre of the São Paulo city carnival performed a samba song about Yasuke, winning that year's competition.